by Gary Lawless, Nobleboro
I.
The island is singing —
The song of wind in the trees,
Ferns in sunlight,
Water against rock,
The song of stars in deep space —
Bird song, sky song, granite song,
Eelgrass moving in the tide —
We walk surrounded by song.
The island has been singing
For so long, so long —
Slowly, we learn to hear —
Slowly, we learn to sing.
II.
Bowing to this moment
To this particular moment
This moment of
Sunlight, grasses, ferns,
Birch, salt water
Chestnut sided warbler —
Bow to the
Horizon — hello
Clouds — hello
Ocean
Every moment
Bowing
III.
Wet moss and i
Can’t hear you walking —
We are moving above
Lower layers of stone —
“Look at the trees” he said —
“under the ground
They are holding hands.”
IV.
Wisps of fog follow
Birdsong along
Edges of the island
Mist rising
V.
Hard to be lonely in the lushness of
Eel-grass, feeling the ocean’s
Ebb and flow —
Hard to know
Want or hurt or
Waste, here below
The sun, the sky,
The water’s edge of
Grass and mud and
Moving with the moon —
Hard to know the
Hearts of men, those
Who would fill and spill and
Kill all below
Their own shallow depth of heart, their
Line of sight —
Hard to know these hearts,
Hard to be alive, hard to survive
In the face of their
Rush toward riches, toward death —
Hard to be alive.
Poet Gary Lawless is co-owner of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, and editor/publisher of Blackberry Books. His latest book of poems, How the Stones Came to Venice, was recently published by Littoral Books, of Portland, Maine. It will also be published in Italian in Italy, and in Portuguese in Brazil. He recently edited and published Nanao Sakaki’s collected poems How to live on the planet earth, as well as several other titles by and about Nanao.
Gary was born in Belfast and lives in Nobleboro with his wife, Beth Leonard, their cat, and their two rescue donkeys.
A project of volunteers who care deeply about Sears Island