Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NIGHT ON THE ATOLL by CLIFFORD GESSLER

First Line: NOT LIKE THE SOFT AND FURRY NIGHT OF THE HIGH ISLANDS
Last Line: NO DAWN LIKE THIS AWAKENING.
Not like the soft and furry night of the high islands,
darkness comes to the wreath of coral land;
not drugged with fragrance of jasmine or gardenia;
but clean and salty with sea-wind, cool with ocean:
only the light, delicate scent of @3tournefortia@1
and the tang of fires of husks ... and the darkness
falls fresh as morning on the sanded street
where bare feet make no sound.
It is good, then, to lie on the smooth mat
and hear only the trampling of the surf,
the wind clashing the tall fronds of palms,
and the terns talking to one another in night-language.

No sleep of the high islands is like this sleep;
no dawn like this awakening.



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