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THE NAVEL OF GOD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Days sailing, and the valleyed sea
Last Line: And established there the foundations of the land.


Days sailing, and the valleyed sea
about us, the same yet ever changing face;
days in the sun, and the humped backs
of porpoises rolling ahead, and the dark banners
of shark fins ...
and deep-spangled nights
cool with the wind; the flying-fish, blind with our lights,
lured thudding against the deck ...
And at the wheel
two hands and one bare foot gripping the spokes,
swinging the sharp tall prow against the push
of obstinate waves, holding her hard and true
where the Southern Cross blooms like a stalked flower
and the clouds sculpture a long-beaked ancient god
swallowing the oval moon.

And all these days no sail, nor any land --
only the wide, up-tilted plain of sea
to the dark edge of the sky. This
is the Navel of God, where the sacred star-paths cross
and the ocean streams curl back, and the winds halt.

Reach back into memory older than ships
like this: call out the sailing-directions
learned of the brown gods! Here is the great divide
where the Firm Canoe Star sinks in the north, behind,
and the keel plows on, furrowing straight south
to the White Stars that Spring from the World's Root.

Only the sea-birds know this place, and the spirits
of sailing gods, ancestral voyagers
who followed those birds to the sun-drenched ancient islands
and established there the foundations of the land.





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