Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ISOLATE, by PORTIA MARTIN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ISOLATE, by                    
First Line: I looked out over the ocean
Last Line: And watched it disappear.
Subject(s): Dreams; Letters; Sea; Nightmares; Ocean


I looked out over the ocean
and thought, tonight I will write to my beloved
and tell him of the sunset.
And I busied my mind
with symbols for the sun.

I thought, it is a toy balloon
a drowning child drags under,
it is a crystal sphere
aflame with prophesies of great disaster,
it is a drop of sorrow
from Christ's shame-crowned head.

Dreams drifted into distance
and dissolved . . .
descended on my spirit
God's swift alchemy.
And I became the sun
and surged into the sea,
and I became the wind
and ran along the shore;
I was a tingling tangle of the sparse beach-grass,
I was the moon-enraptured tide,
I was stark sand.

But I could find no words for my beloved.
I bent my letter to a paper boat
and watched it disappear.





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