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 Eight
1 comment:
i love "concrete and i-beam towers." primo...
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