A Sea Cycle

A SEA CYCLE
a poem for haiti

i
in the high places tonight
the earth is in its wisdom dress
there is an unhurried patient
ritualistic humming
there is a mountaintop,
a mountaintop, sticking its face
all the way, so far
as it is nearly able,
to heaven

ii
clouds - ocean and
the wind on their
way to eat mountains
and then the rain
in its deep appetite
is on its way too
mumbling to itself
rain-words like rocks

iii
i hear the wind tumbling
there is something in
the stomach of the sea
which has gone sour
needs covering over
death and ruined cities
are in the mouthpit of
the world yet the sea
desires to kiss that mouth
everything alive dies but
the sea wants silt and rock
the sea wants magma
the sea wants to thrust
her tongue into the hot
core of the world

there is fire in the belly
of the world; that and
the sun, even with its
impossible distance, in
the sea's roiling face;
oh how heaven rolls
and rolls tonight, how
the greengilled waves
turn upside down
something is sour in
the belly of the sea
needs covering over
and then the sudden
rising up right out of
her sick bed

iv
me cierra los ojos
says ocean;
we mistake her voice
rolling over sands
as the sound
of waves
only of
surf, only

v
a wise man once told me
there is a bitter aftertaste
to experience, the sea knows
this and, wishing to explain
herself to the world, keeps
repeating a single word
against the shore; death
and life are the same, says
ocean; in our ignorance
and strange preoccupation
with the multitude of things
we do not understand

the one thing

George Wallace
Northport, NY
American Red Cross