The following is a poem about the stranding of the 236m container vessel Rena on the Astrolabe Reef on October 5 and the ensuing oil leak into the sea.

Rena in murky conditions at the weekend. Photo: Maritime New Zealand.

Email your photos, poems, letters to the editor and other works about the Rena issue to newsroom@thesun.co.nz

Rena

By Georgie MacBrayne

Grounded…jammed on a reef,

Miles off course in the morning's early hours,

The Rena, pedestalled on Astrolabe,

Pitched and leaning, she towers

Over the churning surface of the ocean,

Stuck fast yet in perpetual motion,

Lurching, at the mercy of the waves.

Thick and putrid her life blood oozes from ruptured tanks,

Escaping a split carcass, stuck fast on the jagged banks,

Compromising our shores – her own catastrophe vying

With birds and sea creatures trying

To survive in a mantle of thick black oil, and dying,

Losing the one-sided contest.

A captain is in disgrace,

We don't see his face.

Man without a name, his first mate the same.

But who is responsible and who will take the blame?

Millions of dollars in compensation

Can't match the devastation

Or turn back the clock

Of relentless time.

But time will tell

And yet may be seen

Our beautiful coastline,

Cleansed and pristine.