The Sea

The Sea

"On the beach
the ocean ends in water.
--George Oppen
The Materials

The crisp line, taut, in all
intimations, thrown out, cork circling
the water, spash, my hand

reaching out

--the call, rightly named, these
Materials, the call is there
simple, demanding

response and a certain
attention to pulse, the
movement of whatever the work

asks of man--is that what
I'm trying to say, a man,
and how, sometimes, he doesn't

drown. Coming up spitting
salt water, safely past the
screws, it is a man
intact who waves

from the calm wake; behind
him the sea clear, oceans
held in place by a line.


Keith Wilson