Near Portland
A white boat drifts
at the end of a tether line
at a distance from other craft
whose bare spars tilt
and wave like thin aspens
in the pull and release of the current,
locked in constant rocking,
a slow seesaw motion.
On shore stray voyeurs
listen for birds but hear
the soft battering
of water on moist wood.
The air carries a smell
from a marsh that blocked change,
holding fast to the daily
ebb of tidal debris,
combing these lost objects --
paper or seabird feathers
or shells of horseshoe crabs --
and holding onto something.
I watch the white boat,
like a Sunday-painter's tableau,
imprinted by light on my mind,
looking to hold onto something,
and holding this for a moment.
Royal Rhodes
Royal Rhodes is a retired teacher of
global religions, religion & literature, and death & dying. His poems
have appeared in print and online journals, including: BEARINGS, Snakeskin,
The Lyric, Cholla Needles, Harbinger Asylum, and in a series of art/poetry
collaborations with The Catbird [on the Yadkin] Press in North Carolina. His
current project is an exhibition on The Art of Trees.
fine meditation
ReplyDelete