Poem-A-Day: The Barnacle and the Gray Whale by Cecilia Llompart

February 28, 2014 The Barnacle and the Gray Whale by Cecilia Llompart        Said the Barnacle,   You enchant me, with your carnival of force.   Yours is a system of slow.   There is you, the pulley and there is you, the weight.   Your eyes wide on a hymn.   Your deep song like the turn of that first,   that earliest of wheels.     Said the Whale,   I have seen you, little encruster, in that business of fouling the ships.   Known, little drum machine, you to tease out food from the drink.   Little thimble of chalk and hard water.   You could be a callus of whiter skin.   You could be a knucklebone. You who hang on me,   like a conscience.     Copyright © 2014 by Cecilia Llompart. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem  "This poem is the first in a series I wrote as coping mechanism during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. What I thought would be downright angry poems turned out more dreamy, more fable-esque: dialogues between marine animals contemplating their vast and ancient world. It's a meditation on biological and spiritual interconnectedness, on a world less touched by man, and--in it's own way--also on deep love for all life."   --Cecilia Llompart Most Recent Book by Llompart The Wingless  (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014)               Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.     Cecilia Llompart is the author of The Wingless (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014). She currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Related Poems Goldfish Are Ordinary by Stacie Cassarino Gila by Rigoberto González  The Feeling of the World As a Bounded Whale Is the Mystical [The child affixes]  by Darcie Dennigan __________________________ Love reading Poem-A-Day? Help support it today.     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.

Forward this email This email was sent to prentice654.allsms@blogger.com by academy@poets.org |   Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Academy of American Poets | 75 Maiden Lane | Suite 901 | New York | NY | 10038