“Be Like the Tide”

Every now and then, I’ll publish something here, just to share. And since I’ve endured something of a dry spell, with not much new work published recently, todays’a good time to try again. It means that I can’t offer this poem, “Be Like the Tide,” to most magazines, since it will now be considered “published,” although it’s only here for you and me, but I don’t care. I just wanted to visit with you a bit, and this is how I do it. So enjoy!

be like the tide, that sweeps and cleans the beach
erasing every trace of passage
stranding fragments of the life it bears inside
shells weeds stars fish
and with its consequent surge makes clean again

be like the wind that batters atmospheres
brings rains and thunder
bringing also the blue sky that we love
the tattered rags of clouds
banished to replenish their wet blessings

be like the howling fires beneath the earth
which unforshadowed burst
to destroy the present, nourish times to come
Roman concrete, ash-fed farms
eventual blessings of the trembling earth

be like the tree that sheds its leaves each year
feigning death in winter stillness
and slyly greens again in springtime rains
fed by its litter of dead flesh
belying its barren bareness, never bereft
forever returning

find the permanence in impermanence, echo the earth
and cleanse yourself of pride and shame alike

Rick Risemberg