The Siren, Beauty

I haven’t quite decided if I want to post my poems with no introduction, or a short introduction. So today I’m experimenting with short intros. Let me know in the comments if you like hearing a little bit about the poem, or if I should just let the poem speak for itself.

I visited the North Atlantic coast with my in-laws for a day this fall and instantly fell in love with the barren rocky shoreline. Beauty often feels just out of reach of me, impossible to fully enjoy until I become one with it. Like a pile of leaves, incomplete until I leap in them.

The Siren, Beauty

My sweater flutters against my back
flapped by the wind’s racing heartbeat

Fall colors shine beneath the water
black caviar algae hems
the promontory’s pink rock edge
maroon dulse and forest green lettuce
drape themselves across the rocks
all enclosed in flawless shining glass for one
eternal moment
before the water turns to spray
splashing onto bare rocks
darkened from Sisyphus-like bathing

Again and again the shining water
thumps and splashes
on the smooth, wrinkled rocks
echoing Odysseus’ sirens
as it calls my name deep within the rocks
calling, whispering, pulling at my bones

Come, come to me
Here in the shimmering water
Here in my sea moss embrace
Here is paradise for the taking
Come, come to me

And I follow the call
racing along the barren shoreline
straight for the rocks
leaping across them
pausing only at the farthest edge
where the call is a growing hum,
vibrant, deep , insistent;
here is the beauty ever out of reach
ever at the corner of my eyes

The wind’s heartbeat tightens to a tremolo
whispering, pushing at my back;
one more step and I will kiss beauty
wrapped at last in her embrace

And as I plummet one last thought
floats through me:

Odysseus was a fool