Watching the Sea Go by Dana Levin

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 11, 2014   Watching the Sea Go   Dana Levin

Thirty seconds of yellow lichen. Thirty seconds of coil and surge,             fern and froth, thirty seconds                          of salt, rock, fog, spray.                                                                 Clouds moving slowly to the left―             A door in a rock through which you could see                                       ― another rock,                        laved by the weedy tide.             Like filming breathing―thirty seconds of tidal drag, fingering              the smaller stones                           down the black beach―what color              was that, aquamarine? Starfish spread                          their salmon-colored hands.                                      ―             I stood and I shot them. I stood and I watched them             right after I shot them: thirty seconds of smashed sea                          while the real sea                             thrashed and heaved―            They were the most boring movies ever made. I wanted                        to mount them together and press play.                                      ―            Thirty seconds of waves colliding. Kelp            with its open attitudes, seals                         riding the swells, curved in a row                         just under the water―                                     the sea,             over and over.                                     Before it’s over.            Copyright © 2014 by Dana Levin. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I was staying on a beloved part of the Northern California coast intending to write, but all I kept doing was taking thirty second videos of the sea. It seemed like such an absurd activity (the sea was right there!), but I was compelled. On the page I’d been troubling our environmental future; perhaps the videos were little stays against the End.” —Dana Levin   Dana Levin is the author of Sky Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2011). She teaches at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Most Recent Book by Levin   Sky Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2011) "harbor (the conversion)" by Nick Flynn "Song" by Frank Bidart "Sea Fever" by John Masefield Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038