it's always been the other shore
DESCRIPTION
a series of poems about where we're bound. From the poet's samuddo / ocean work.TRANSCRIPT
it’s always been the other shore
samuddo / ocean2015
john martone
copyright © 2015 by John Martoneisbn [email protected]
6
it’s always been the other shore
small planeso bright eyes hurt
7
bare feet pause at bougainvillea
magnolia close as you’ll get
8
your veins —
monocotsparallel
dicots netted
summerremember
your wateryou’re water
9
turquoisethen deep blueribbed shell sea
shelling a boy turns cartwheels tide’s coming in
watching waves till dizzy
10
weathered driftwood human
aloe plantlizards are really fast
11
you find home after home in that cloud
epiphytes breathe on a power line
12
small lizards climb the doorframe at dawn snail rests on the stone
13
low tide sailor’s eye mermaid pursebarefoot fool
beachcomber looks for his place
big bangwaves wash up perfect shells
14
uprightbeach-
comber’sfound
his driftwood spine
waves
the morning after
the morning before
15
all those places roadside dreams
all those depthsa mottled sea
16
memory counting waves
back to the very first —
some no one
salt spray no help for the lenses
17
slow as can besandhill cranes acrossa hospital road
18
out of the sun bruises when you touch him
old men & sea urchins feeding tubes
from the deep —wine-darkold man skin
ninety year old capillaries fish tail skin
19
august 6a bell on this beach
old penthus have I heard —cicadas
cicadas now another tide
21
sandpipers flyto the arctic & back & you’re afraid
22
blue heron sizing you up odd-shape frog
sea turtle nests roped-off — how you knowwhere you are
23
palm rootsin storm
let gojust when
24
cell-by-cellmore nakedly sea lettuce
25
sand-color witha catch-all pouchdead pelican
caught in that
current once
26
bare feet in the tide living things
short-limbed — not muchof a swimmer sand crab you
27
the samesandpipers
shore & dreamper
haps
surfwood went by anothername then
28
my medicine buddha a lapis sky
happens to everyone
don’t be afraid
29
botanize the beach road
30
seedsyllables flowers
flowersseed syllables
syllables seed flowers
31
lost in linnaean mantras
discretion the smallest bromeliad —spanish moss
propriety a cycad
32
spaciousnessa sand pine
33
no one bougainvillea no one no one —
34
your name joyweed chaff-flower
red beak — 3 daysto remember your name heliconia
35
fingers your fingers air plant
air plants in palm bootsall the way home
36
banyan shade air plants leaveroom to breathe
37
hardly turn at all dunesunflower
putting allclockwork to shameschefflera
38
coconut palm leans in advance of the storm
39
a green anole waits for you —why not smile
40
a fool gets lost in it
ancient lives turn to stone
in the sun at the sea
ancient sun on the sea
turns the stoneinto life
ancient seaturns the stone
of our livesinto sun
41
but the bougainvillea dusk —
42
staying so long to watch the perseid showeroutside your motel room
43
late summer the thought of —
the thought of late summer
late summer night sounds you turn to a lost art
44
perseid showers
foam on the waves
45
nothing to do eyes adjusting to perseid dark
46
lighthouseyucca
trailer park in the sandblinding
47
a buddha land’s rings of lakes bromeliad
bromeliad & the sun at center
sea oat people
rooting in sand
48
white sand sawgrass cemeterysoon at sea
49
space inthe sea grapes for you
it’s always been the other shore