30 Poems in 30 Days: Day 17
Write a poem that is set at or near where you live.
The shoreline is utterly altered after the storms
but summer is coming, we can get to the beach again.
Someone has partly restored the path that became a cliff
easing it into a soft hill of sand we can trudge down and up.
Others are here already, walking or fishing.
The waves come in now in opposing directions
turning on each other like the edge of half a whirlpool.
The shallows are all uneven; in places huge licks extend
reaching nearly to the foot of the cliff, in far beyond the rest.
This is a sea I don’t want to turn my back on.
But I do while I fossick for stones in the slush:
interesting shapes, beautiful colours, satisfying textures.
Here is a comma and here a heart. Some are marked with crosses
others circled by raised, contrasting rings. One is a pearl, translucent white,
others are black and smooth, shining like onyx.
Then everyone stops. We all stand still and gaze.
I’d heard two days ago there were whales about, seen
from the headland at Hastings Point, and now they are here
disporting themselves in leisurely ease, back behind the breakers,
cresting and diving, leaping and plunging.
A glimpse of graceful tail, a curving fin or a snout,
a sudden spume of white, a burst of foam. A silver glint
from the underside of a fin caught by the sun. And the sky vast,
pastel blue with long white feathery stripes of cloud stretching across.
The ocean sparkled, seeming to sing.
lovely spot. ocean is restive to the soul.
ReplyDeleteI'll try a tumbling rhyme like you tried on the theme as I'm still culture shocked and jet lagged.
where I live is renewed
suddenly made bright, huge
from square foot to tube
for the toothpaste --
the fridge is a waste
land of empty. we paced
the elevator floor
there's room for 8 more
at a dinner party in here. chore
it is to walk to hear the hub
4 hotel rooms away. Love,
what did you say?
why canned music forays
from every store and cafe?
this city has 4 wheels
good, not two. who feels
scooters and 1-man dealies
for tow trucks are roles
best played by monsters? holes
in traffic under controls
of lights, of signs, of lines
on roads. back to the fine
land of apology. dine
like Caesar on excesses
of sorry sorry sorry lest
a spine incline towards ess
of someone else's. and cold!
who was so dastardly bold
as to turn off the heat? old
bones creak in two layers deep
of wool. but still a fog creeps
valleys, rivers. I could weep
at the beauty of sunrise
catching the smokestack. eyes
startle, but home is realized.
and clearly in sight -- clutter
the unneededness of utter
useless paper. clean, putter
remake the nest. refresh
the mind to habits. prec-
iious kept. like friends. flesh
is the real home. that and those
who love us. we can dispose
of what addictive, the heat that froze
in the cold of things. we missed
not a carpet, not a light. list
what matters? us. joy exists.
This terrific, Pearl, I love it. And who but you could so expertly turn a humorous form into a profound affirmation? You used the rhymes to lead the reader into it beautifully, inevitably - don't think I didn't notice and admire. :)
ReplyDeletethanks.
ReplyDelete