Poem: "Interfacing"

[ysabetwordsmith]

Here is today's freebie.  It was inspired by prompts from dianavilliers (see the lovely photos!) and jenny_evergreen.

Interfacing

This is what binds the layers of the world together.

A fountain in the ocean blows water into the air
as a whale heaves a huge sigh of relief.
A cloud in the sky, the size of a continent,
rains down and down and down on the hill-high waves.

A woman walks along the beach, her bare feet
embracing the sand, footprints erased even as she makes them.
The waves stroke and stroke against the waiting shore.
A river washes chocolate-colored silt into the sea.

The city curls itself around the open arc of the cove.
From the high black hills, golden windows gleam.
The light falls in long skeins over the dark water.
The ebony ocean reflects the luminous rays.

The sea and the land and the sky are bounded
by their selvages, separate pieces quilted together
by the bright threads of our lives, by our busy hands
as we dig and swim and fly, all pulled into one pattern.

It is our interactions that define and refine us.

Comments

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Mmm. There are pieces of this I really enjoy. I like the quilt metaphor. I like the feeling of being by the ocean.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Extended metaphor is a favorite technique of mine. I've used it in several poems today.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Lovely!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to hear that.

[jenny_evergreen]

Good job!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed this poem.

[eseme]

I love visiting the ocean. It's one of my favorite things to do, and I make sure to go at least once a year. You're in a state with no ocean - I am impressed that you got the feeling of it so well. The rhythm of the poem is like waves.

I haven't been since October, but you've got the feeling here.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>I love visiting the ocean. It's one of my favorite things to do, and I make sure to go at least once a year. You're in a state with no ocean - I am impressed that you got the feeling of it so well. The rhythm of the poem is like waves.<<

You are lucky to live near the ocean! I have visited the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, on various occasions. I am always happy to see the ocean when I can, though I don't get many chances. It doesn't take much to remind me, though; I've spent whole lives with the wide salt waters, and they will forever remain familiar to me.

Re: Thank you!

[eseme]

Then I will need to get to work finishing my much-delayed travel post about Old Orchard Beach. I think I'll need to break it up. It's long, and there should be photos.