Semiosis of Winter Beach, Days 9-14

Day 9

Today you are I and I am you.

Shadows skimming a calm blue surface.

Quiet turbulence to put an edge on

and give momentum to thought.

Swells pushing and lifting toward the goal.

And in the sunlit distance, two towers

To suggest the majesty of creation

Amidst the fullness

Of teeming mystery.

Day 10

When you speak, I listen.

When you whisper, I hover

Over quiescent pools

Consonants yielding consonance,

Hmmmm, ymmm, lmmmn, whmmm,

Holding vowels at bay.

Contrast that is consonance in

Disguise.

Day 11

Gentle green lady, susushushing up to shore with only a dark shoulder to show that yesterday’s rage still carries weight.

And at this corner, with your choice of smaller stones laid out in a curve, the retreat sings a song that no human instrument can imitate: specific and infinite, pebble to pebble, smacking rough to smooth.

Day 12

There are waves and there are waves of waves.

The wind is the wave of waves.

Day 13

Are you distracted by today’s chill companion of air?

You pitch and toss tiny bullets in random scatter:

I cannot read the scribble.

I can read only two gifts: a perfect shell with

Palm turned upward, receiving and giving,

at once and the same.

And a white feather, upright against the odds.

Your curves are tight;

Energy quiet.

Every map you offer is

Crosshatched with indecision

And/or regret.

When the moon comes tonight,

Shadowed with my shadow,

Will you hide or tremble? Will

You beg for comfort in arms,

Or blush in awe?

I take away acceptance of the fading

Light and faith in the beneficent

Unknown.

Day 14

Waiting, calming, biding.

Steel gray over

Steelier gray

Receiving, accepting

Elemental nothing,

Elemental all.