Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Migration (part 8 of 8)



two wings and a tail fin,

a 3-edged sail navigates the sky—


redwoods and cedars grow

from moraine heaps along the gills of mountains,

arctic terns fly

north to south,

up and down

the 10,000 mile coast

of America,

desert trails widen into interstates.

the horizon line dissolves in night,

phosphorescence silvers

tides and currents,

waves roll in from Hawaii,

westmost state of this union,

eastern edge of sea migrations

stretching to Madagascar.


vines of light climb

concrete and I-beam towers

along this shore

where I pause

on the verge of arrival,

between abyss and home.

*

This is the last of 8 weekly postings of a poem-painting cycle called “Migration.” This work is based on my experiences in New Caledonia, where in 2007 I was invited to an artist residency exploring the connections between Melanesian cultures and aboriginal tribes of southern China. This final poetry installment is about returning to America from the South Pacific, and about some of the ways migration is manifest on this continent.

As a last-installment bonus, I am including a song (requires the Flash plugin to play) I wrote in New Caledonia, called “Departure.” I wrote this song to my Taiwanese aboriginal friends who invited me to New Caledonia—it’s about my departure from the community where I lived with them for three years on the Pacific coast of Taiwan. You can listen to this and other songs on my music and poetry website, scottezell.org.

If you enjoy this work, please visit my painting website at www.scottezellgallery.com, and click the links below to see previous postings of “Migration”.

Scott Ezell











Click to play (note I.E. users may need to click twice to get it to play)


Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i love "concrete and i-beam towers." primo...