Incantation

Whirl up sea

emergent dripping tides

cold skinned scaled with sun

whirl me necklaced yak bone mantraed

whirl up mountains wind stripped oaks

hurl me home

cover me with pools of care

my ribboned inland sea.

—after H. D.

Darkness Over the Bar

Darkness over the bar

comes as a relief

for its beauty is too much

each fresh wave of consciousness

can tear you to pieces

now below the splendid silent sun

now below the incandescent stars

in love with too much

in the ark of the ache of it

we come to understand

satisfaction is a lowly thing,

how pure a thing is joy.

—with lines by Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore, and Denise Levertov,

and with guidance by Maureen N. McLane.

Off Continent

Off continent off season

against the open sea

where late afternoon expands

into langorous banded hours

night never comes except

there are stars in their passage.


All things rise from the sea

its shattering cleans the soul

to an eloquence of silence

you know what you feel

your truest thoughts

proved on the pulse.

Relativity

What might that draws the liquid sand

back toward the sea

yet holds the stars in place

even as the universe expands,

the same that pulls the you the me

down rivers of attraction

toward an ocean of the we

our constellation pure?

Where We Started

Hasn't enough time

passed by now?

The universe

is in your mind

where it expands

the years

are disappearing

and it is October

still again

as it must be.

—adapted from Jorie Graham's "Place."

Phased

Water tower, Duck, NC

And so we pass from beauty

to the other beauty,

peace, the night splendor.

— Robinson Jeffers

Asia Minor

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In the settling veils of evening

she dances in the tents of the east

twirls in a mauve sky

celebrates the life she knew

and beckons to me

to join her in this life i know

to dance in the world of the living

in the incense of the sand and the sea.

The earth is a beautiful place.

I just wanted to say so.

Hero and Leander

U.S. Army research pier, Duck, NC

Let the sea rage, they knew their own hearts.

How else could they risk

an apocalypse of love?

Pelagic

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The ocean is heavy and fatal

the wind is a thickness against you

yet there are chasms of silence

above the stars over the thunderous sea

and a warmth beside you is everything you need.

Off Season Aesthetic

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Clouds low in the east

more on the sea than in heaven.

Water like violets.


A dream swims down in darkness.


Be glad for the summer is dead

and the sky turns over to night

good storms, few guests, glad tides.

— adapted from the work of Robinson Jeffers

The Verge

Not long before first light

over the onyx verge

the streak of a comet

a year long

a burning hope

and a benediction.

We are not wrong.

What the Sea Says

6:50 a.m., Duck, NC, 10/20/14  

First morning

against the sea

begins as a promise

in your eyes

and all the rest

that follows

whispers to your

deep worry saying

this is true

this is good

this will be.