Leaves sigh overhead.
Stretched out on the public lawn,
couples speak low or
not at all. The last
days of summer gather us
as in years past. With
our backs to the sun
we look out on dark waters.
We hear the gulls call
from eternity.
The world suffers our wild dreams
in its patient gaze.
The poem pivots on the surprise of the unfoolding sentence ‘We hear the gulls call / from eternity’. The ‘dark waters’ come to be seen as both the bay ruffled by wind and a symbol of the natural turbulence of finite existence. The backs to teh sun of the poet and his companion help the reader understand the darkness of the water. But how can we understand gulls calling from eternity? THe ‘world suffers’ is a clue. THe gulls are in teh world. THe ‘suffering’ isnot only enduring pain but waiting, the ‘world’ both the finite realm of finite existence and the span of time fading into what exceeds and continues it in transformation.
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