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Terreson Profile
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By the Sea



By the Sea

I can hear her crying
in the wind tonight,
quietly crying in
her marsh home by the sea.
She thinks that no one
can hear her tonight,
she keeps on crying,
cannot sleep.

I had seen her going
by the sea today,
slowly going
while the sun started to set
beneath her shoulders.
She must have thought
she was alone with the water,
as she turned the faces
she keeps for others,
turned them under.

There was that much loveliness
in the face she gave today,
alone and rising and
spilling over the sand.
And I had to turn
behind the dunes,
or drown inside the tide
made by her open face.

But there was also a sign,
a shivering signal,
in the evening sea skies
falling blue.

It was a sign to start
love’s heart to hurt,
with her autumn eyes
she must have seen it too.

Then the chill in the wind,
what fused sky’s rim.
If only I could see
the summer star shine
in her eyes once more.

Tere
Jul/28/2012, 11:53 am Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
Katlin Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Hi Tere,

There is something soulful and understated about this poem, which I am drawn to. Despite the undertones of wistfulness and sadness, when I read it I feel quiet, calm and centered. I like the way the poem is really a double portrait and tells us something big about the N as well as about the woman by the sea.

On a side note: One of the benefits of pruning the board is that it refreshes the memory about previous posts. I thought folks might be interested in the back story to this poem, which you wrote about once upon a time in Chalkboard and Billbord:

http://bdelectablemnts.runboard.com/t638
Jul/29/2012, 8:19 am Link to this post Send Email to Katlin   Send PM to Katlin
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Thanks, Kat for both commenting and bringing forward the older post. I don't know how it is for others but when I think about the base metals, so to speak, out of which a poem gets drawn I think about something Graves said about poetry being its alchemical gold.

Tere
Jul/29/2012, 11:55 am Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
ineese Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Tere,
I'm drawn to poems about the sea and always have been. I found this one gentle. It brings the woman and the sea together in a simple
way and I think that's important. It doesn't try to "do" anything, or solve a world mystery. It's just a gentle poem. Almost a longing.

Kind of reminds me of Wallace Stevens:

The Idea of Order at Key West



"She sang beyond the genius of the sea.
The water never formed to mind or voice,
Like a body wholly body, fluttering
Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion
Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry,
That was not ours although we understood,
Inhuman, of the veritable ocean.

The sea was not a mask. No more was she.
The song and water were not medleyed sound
Even if what she sang was what she heard.
Since what she sang was uttered word by word.
It may be that in all her phrases stirred
The grinding water and the gasping wind;
But it was she and not the sea we heard.

For she was the maker of the song she sang.
The ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea
Was merely a place by which she walked to sing.
Whose spirit is this? we said, because we knew
It was the spirit that we sought and knew
That we should ask this often as she sang.

If it was only the dark voice of the sea
That rose, or even colored by many waves;
If it was only the outer voice of sky
And cloud, of the sunken coral water-walled,
However clear, it would have been deep air,
The heaving speech of air, a summer sound
Repeated in a summer without end
And sound alone. But it was more than that,
More even than her voice, and ours, among
The meaningless plungings of water and the wind,
Theatrical distances, bronze shadows heaped
On high horizons, mountainous atmospheres
Of sky and sea.
It was her voice that made
The sky acutest at its vanishing.
She measured to the hour its solitude.
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.

Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know,
Why, when the singing ended and we turned
Toward the town, tell why the glassy lights,
The lights in the fishing boats at anchor there,
As night descended, tilting in the air,
Mastered the night and portioned out the sea,
Fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles,
Arranging, deepening, enchanting night.

Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon,
The maker's rage to order words of the sea,
Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred,
And of ourselves and of our origins,
In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds."

Thank you for the read.

I really don't have any changes right off to offer.



Jul/29/2012, 12:02 pm Link to this post Send PM to ineese Blog
 
vkp Profile
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Re: By the Sea


It's beautiful and makes me cry. So poignant is the narrator's tender understanding of the moment and the woman, or at least what he sees in her just then.
Aug/4/2012, 2:14 pm Link to this post Send Email to vkp   Send PM to vkp Blog
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Thank you, vkp. I sometimes think that kind of narrator would do well to develop a certain range of defenses. But then that would end up in a diminishment in a certain range of poetry, n'est pas?

Tere
Aug/4/2012, 4:14 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
arkava Profile
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Re: By the Sea


"She must have thought
she was alone with the water,
as she turned the faces
she keeps for others,
turned them under. "

love these lines and what kat calls (here or in the other thread) the presence of the personal and mythological or what chris calls the archetype. i also notice how in your introduction and comments you emphasize the alchemical aspect to this. liek the internet tells me "The Sky is the female principle, by which that which is received of the male is nourished and increased until it is wholly changed" thank you for posting.
arka

 

Last edited by arkava, Aug/9/2012, 11:48 pm
Aug/9/2012, 11:48 pm Link to this post Send Email to arkava   Send PM to arkava Blog
 
queenfisher Profile
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Re: By the Sea


here the sea caresses - gently washing over the pebbles making them smooth to form those perfect curves!

thanks for posting the background katlin - rounds up the whole poem beautifully!

like the image of the sun setting beneath her shoulders.

& the loveliness rising & spilling over the sand -

And I had to turn
behind the dunes,
or drown inside the tide
made by her open face.

that's alchemical gold!

sea & women - go a long way together in mysterious depths!

in a way the poem is a tribute to womankind!

& the comment about goethe by katlin in the previous post - reminds me of one of our most favorite God's Krishna - who was the epitome of a divine lover! all the women loved him & he loved all of them! coincidentally we celebrated his birthday yesterday! & today there is a ritual which will happen later in the afternoon - a clay pot is strung up at a great height which is full of yogurt - that was krishna's fav. food & all the young guys climb one on top of the other to reach it & break the pot to get at the yogurt - these pots are strung some 15 stories high or higher! while the women throw buckets of cold water from top to make it difficult for them.

as the story goes young krishna used to break pots & steal yogurt from all the ladies in the neihbourhood & was up to all kinds of mischief including running away with their clothes when the fair maidens were bathing in the sea! on one occasion he took many forms so that he could dance with all the women in his village!

sorry for deviating - hope you don't mind tere.
Aug/10/2012, 1:16 am Link to this post Send Email to queenfisher   Send PM to queenfisher Blog
 
vkp Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Interesting Arka, what you said/found about the sky -- in Native American tradition it is "Father Sky" -- the masculine principle, and the earth is "Pachamama" -- mother earth, the female principle. That view has always resonated with me. I've always thought of the sea as female too -- as it is part of the earth. I also never forget how Santiago speaks of la mar in Old Man and the Sea as a woman who can be kind or cruel....
Aug/10/2012, 7:23 am Link to this post Send Email to vkp   Send PM to vkp Blog
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Thanks again everyone for the comments. Plus a Stevens poem, one of his best, and a Krishna story. Doesn't get much better.

Tere
Aug/25/2012, 1:39 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
Zakzzz5 Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Terreson,

I see a lot of influences, but some stand out: Poe, the Romantics; did Coleridge write in a similar vein? Also, I get the feel of a child's lullaby; also there was a Beatle's song that was a lullaby. Then, surprisingly, I get a very Spanish feel in the poem. Almost as if I'm reading Spanish without the translation. Maybe Lorca or a more relaxed Neruda. Not sure Neruda would fit; he favors brevity, at least where I'm aware. Maybe not even Lorca, but still a very strong feel of some rhythm or something that resonates with Spanish.

Zak

quote:

Terreson wrote:


By the Sea

I can hear her crying
in the wind tonight,
quietly crying in
her marsh home by the sea.
She thinks that no one
can hear her tonight,
she keeps on crying,
cannot sleep.

I had seen her going
by the sea today,
slowly going
while the sun started to set
beneath her shoulders.
She must have thought
she was alone with the water,
as she turned the faces
she keeps for others,
turned them under.

There was that much loveliness
in the face she gave today,
alone and rising and
spilling over the sand.
And I had to turn
behind the dunes,
or drown inside the tide
made by her open face.

But there was also a sign,
a shivering signal,
in the evening sea skies
falling blue.

It was a sign to start
love’s heart to hurt,
with her autumn eyes
she must have seen it too.

Then the chill in the wind,
what fused sky’s rim.
If only I could see
the summer star shine
in her eyes once more.

Tere



Sep/14/2012, 4:57 am Link to this post Send Email to Zakzzz5   Send PM to Zakzzz5
 
vkp Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Zak: I absolutely know what you mean about the sound of the poem and Spanish, somehow, somewhere.... Very cool observation.
Sep/28/2012, 3:05 pm Link to this post Send Email to vkp   Send PM to vkp Blog
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: By the Sea


Thanks, Zak. Hadn't thought about the Spanish influence, or noticed it myself. But I get what you mean. Increasingly I've leaned into, for lack of a better description, the flamenco way. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes unawares. Probably it is always there.

Tere
Oct/7/2012, 11:48 am Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 


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