by L.R. Berger
From the beginning, the sea
has been collaborating
with the bluff, the sandy shore,
the clattering stones, calling to us, Belovéd..
Can’t you hear it? The conspiracy
of tides, shifting forces of the moon,
moody winds over the surface?
The whitecaps have been delivering
the sea’s one and only word through time.
That’s how passionately it wants
to confer on us our true nature.
Standing before the brimming commotion,
we might mistake the message
falling at our feet
for inconsequential sound.
Our ears have heard things, after all
that were bound to discourage hearing.
But the sea is never discouraged,
because it has its one and only word
and because it speaks to us
on behalf of all creation.
Listen. Try slipping your whole life
into the hands of someone you love.
Can you hear it? Inside
the incoming tide?
L.R.Berger’s collection of poems, ‘TheUnexpectedAviary,’ received the Jane Kenyon Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry. She’s been the grateful recipient of fellowships and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN New England Discovery Award, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and was Visiting Artist at The American Academy in Rome. With Kamal Boullatta, she assisted in the translation from the Arabic of “Beginnings” by Adonis (Pyramid Atlantic Press). She lives and writes in NH within earshot of the Contoocook River.