Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Joan Metelerkamp

Sea

Sea

Sea

To have lost even the why or the what for –
to dream and to wake with the weight
of even the mechanical why even the mechanical wherefore –

the primitive one-string cello,
bent low playing a threnody, thread, theme I know,
into the night as I wake heaving it, hearing it –

like a chorus dissolving
not only sadness, sea,    
                       but past sadness
past past sadness

now that I live so close to your sound, sea,
              even at night wake to listen for you –
              close to your smell
              close and often to your salvage
              your changing sand and rock shelf, sea,
                         lost generations
                         lost progenitors
                         past sadness, sea
Close

Sea

To have lost even the why or the what for –
to dream and to wake with the weight
of even the mechanical why even the mechanical wherefore –

the primitive one-string cello,
bent low playing a threnody, thread, theme I know,
into the night as I wake heaving it, hearing it –

like a chorus dissolving
not only sadness, sea,    
                       but past sadness
past past sadness

now that I live so close to your sound, sea,
              even at night wake to listen for you –
              close to your smell
              close and often to your salvage
              your changing sand and rock shelf, sea,
                         lost generations
                         lost progenitors
                         past sadness, sea

Sea

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