I
Night is above me,
And Night is above the night.
The sea is beside me soughing, or is still.
The earth as a somnambulist moves on
In a strange sleep …
A sea-bird cries.
And the cry wakes in me
Dim, dead sea-folk, my sires–
Who more than myself are me.
Who sat on their beach long nights ago and saw
The sea in its silence;
And cursed it or implored:
Or with the Cross defied;
Then on the morrow in their boats went down.
II
Night is above me …
And Night is above the night.
Rocks are about me, and, beyond, the sand …
And the low reluctant tide,
That rushes back to ebb a last farewell
To the flotsam borne so long upon its breast.
Rocks…. But the tide is out,
And the slime lies naked, like a thing ashamed
That has no hiding-place.
And the sea-bird hushes–
The bird and all far cries within my blood–
And earth as a somnambulist moves on.
(Cale Young Rice)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Cry Poems, Birds Poems, Silence PoemsBased on Keywords: soughing, implored, hushes, flotsam, hiding-place, sea-folk, somnambulist