The Poetry Show: Safe Harbors

Enlighten Radio Presents   Unexpected Poetics -- Seeking, and Finding Safe Harbor     Poets Dinah Hawken, Tracy K Smith, Ralph Williams, Don Hynes visit the peace of harbors. This poem by David Gregory, Reading the Bar/Whakatane Harbour, like the sea, does not encourage adjectives.   Reading the Bar Whakatane Harbour   Such a liquid language lisping between the headlands with a slight disturbance of syntax over the rocks, fresh and salt; the river knuckling under. Read the slurred waves. Air as braille against the skin, hair; always more episodes of driftwood. An interrogation of gulls demand their living off the backs of water. The sea is not contained by adjectives – sullen, playful, unforgiving – the insult of ignorance has a sure response. A woman stands alone literate in grief.   David Gregory Based on a True Story, Sudden Valley Press, 2024   Our Blog   Our Player   Our Podcasts questions, comments: [email protected]