back to
poetry
index

Overture
by Earl Coleman

The humpback whale once sang to me
As I was drifting at the sufferance of the moon
(My oar retired, and my bark quite still),
Distracted by the fractured light
Of brilliant cut-glass shimmer
Of the buoyant, quick, ecstatic,
Agitated, murmurous abyss. The whale
A-jut, mouth open, swallowing the sea,
Arched before he dove, and sang a single note
For me, then shot below with awesome fin.

Quite near to me he was, as close as you
Are now. Like yours his secrets fathomless persist;
Your song, not unlike his, is plaintive, wise,
Ethereal, and fetches floods of pleasure to my eyes.