The FAB&PP Poem of the Month for September 2000
TWO RED RIVER BEACH POEMS
1.
depending on
the four ducks
grazing
in the detritus of low tide
[like me
scraping for a poem
in a summer
afternoon too
common and
too pure
for ex
perience]
in the silence of the
low tide on
the southern shore
monomoy
on the western
horizon
i’m standing in
the brown edge of
the blue
ocean
the ducks
move away, subtly,
along the ripples
not wanting
to abandon
their spot
[not waiting]
but wary of me
the children on the
far side of the breakwater
not wanting to be
silenced yet their
splashing rudeness like
a shell encasing the empty
quiet of the
day
like the drone
of the tour launch gliding
back to wychmere
the encasing calm
like the sloshing
of the ocean sleeping
low on the new sand
i move away
the ducks circle out and
reclaim my spot
i retire to
walk away from sand
to asphalt
from shore
to patio from my
imagination to my
rented kitchen’s table
from my
poem to the writing
of it
2.
the only cormorant
sits apart from
the gulls
gray calm
morning
illuminates the
shore
the peepers
peck at the
low-tide remnants
the end of the
breakwater fades
into the
low
bottom of the
fog bank
the
ocean flat
the tide waning
into noon
high sun
ultra-violet
caressing the
shoulders of the
sitters and
readers
listeners
life
guards and
side
street strollers
the cormorant
stretches and looks
to the sky
the big
gull
tucks in beneath
a wing
the end of august
the tide turns
Red River Beach, August 28 and 31, 2000
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