The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 2/24/09

[BlueIris]

"At Sea"

Somewhere near Tenerife we saw 
            the Northern Lights
pulsing and arcing, a blanket of iridescence shaken out
            in the wind.

Some of the old hands said it was
            a bad sign
to see the lights over your left
            shoulder

because that's where death sits, smiling
            and smoking
his foul cigars, though maybe that was just
            a thing they said

to make our meat creep and I knew that
            about death
anyway. They also said The Lights and the blue
            white phosphorus

almost bright enough to read by were
            twin brothers
separated at birth and placed somehow in the world
            of distances

like time, that is, like something
            you can't fool
or bargain with. Flying fish kept leaping
            with astonishment

into the strange night, we found them 
            flopping
all over the deck, glittering with
            phosphorus, mad

about the sky, and unsuspecting as we
            scooped them up.
I remember Isaacssen saying it was all
            right to eat them:

they were probably communists. We never
            knew what
he meant by that. The Lights followed us
            for days

and the fish followed The Lights. And the phosphorus
            kept on arguing
its point about the reliability of salt, as though
            Reason mattered.

-Christopher Howell

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear BlueIris!

Oh, how nice this is! I love the imagery...

I can see the fish, and all of it...

Thank you!

:hi:

[BlueIris]

3. Yeah, Christopher Howell is great. He's one of those famous poets

that only I seem to know about.

:-)

[Xipe Totec]

2. You brought this phenomenon to mind

http://www.knmi.nl/~koek/LichtendeWielen_en.htm

[BlueIris]

4. Huh. Thanks for the link; it helps clear up a few things. nt