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Poetry
(rd king dot net)poetry and digital art
American Summer
Poems written while traveling.
North Coast Travel
1: Highway 37 Across the mud flats we raced on a road laid upon brackish waters, a road too driven for safety and comfort. Across the mud flats we went among the zippy imports and the egrets. 2: Sand and Foam I took my daughters by the hand among the sandpipers and the kelp and walked along the shoreline. The seawash wet our pant legs. The sun changed color and shape. 3: North Coast Sunset Dispersed by a low-slung fog bank, the sun goes down. The sea turns a reflective, unsettled gray. Endless waves. Idle gulls. Two young girls sit shoulder to shoulder on the still-wet shore. It is most idyllic: the seals on the rocks, the pelicans feeding. 4: Fire Against that empty and colorless canvas, the Bishop pines darken to silhouette. Smoke drifts above our little fire. I am quickened by your face in the firelight and the black, black woods beyond. 5: Eel River Fever The wind blew. The wind blew and then it gusted. A fever came upon me as if readied by the wind. I did sleep a heady sleep until Mars appeared that night. 6: Eel River Serenade And I woke to various infirmities: I was beleaguered with ache and pain— but my spirit soon rose when my daughter sang her songs to me. 7: Parkland Operetta Through oak leaves and rubbery madrone a cooling breeze swept the canyon. Big trucks rattled on the highway. A shapeless old man helped his son to start a car. The river ran. 8: Aquatic Life In the rookery sea lions barked and seemed clumsy as we must have seemed groping about on the kelp-slick rocks— so many tidepool dramas we then found at the edge of the jade-colored sea. back | ToC | next » 1989
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