ALTERNATIVES |
|
I have heard there are
alternatives. To what, I say. To living, a man can always die. Ah, but that’s the
hard way out. The easy way is to go on living. I have so much life and living that needs
doing I’m surprised I ever thought of death. You’ve but to smile at me in the
morning and a new life starts. When you frown that will be my excuse to live a while
longer in order that I might coax a new smile out of you.
The only alternative is to be without you. I cannot imagine that now and so no
alternatives exist for me. That does not mean I’m unafraid. I would that I had left
to me one safety-zone. One place that I might come to, one island that I might row to
should you run from me.
- from "The Sea Around Me, " 1976, 1977 |
BIRDS |
|
I A band of birds
geese I think,
flying in or back
from somewhere
to where the winter
will be less hard.
See them end to end
across the sky
hardly out of line
by one.
A victory sign but wider
their formation is a marvel,
meticulous, mechanical.
And there
just above the trees
another band of birds
brings up the rear,
like a vanguard
keeping guard.
Some have landed,
and they rest
on bare-limbed trees
and telephone lines.
They dot but never blur
the moon.
Perched still and silent
awaiting their rotation,
strung out they spy
in
Morse code.
II
Rested, restless now
they move as one.
Picking up formation
they fly straight forward
overhead
blinking in the sunlight
till a better place to perch
is found.
I stumbled on your suitcase
in
the hallway
half an hour ago.
Have you been looking
out the window
at the birds?
I have seen you move so often.
Set sail on so much
unknown sea
that I can feel the readiness
within you to be gone
but this time
I’ll do all the running.
You needn’t fly or migrate
with the
birds.
Stay.
I wish you life
in great abundance
down your lifetime.
Whoever’s coming,
known or unknown
on his way to you
I pray that he
will not be long
in finding you.
Don’t forget
to send a postcard
telling me the news.
Did the grunion run
and did you out-distance
all the near and distant strangers,
capture them and captivate them
one by one?
Write me.
I’d be unhappy if I thought
that you were still out running
and had not been caught.
Tomorrow
I’ll be that lone bird
winging past the morning moon
on my way below
the belt of California.
- From "The Sea Around Me, " 1976, 1977 |
