Robert Bly: On the Oregon Coast

Face Rock State Park, Bandon, Oregon

On the Oregon Coast

For William Stafford

The waves come - the large fourth wave

Looming up, thinking, crashing down - all

Roll in so prominently that I become small

And write this in a cramped script, hard to read.

Well, all this fury, prominent or not

Is also hard to read, and the ducks don't help,

Settling down in furry water, shaking

Themselves, and then forgetting it within a minute.

Remembering the fury, it is up to us, even

Though we feel small compared to the loose

Ocean, to keep sailing and not land,

And figure out what to say to our children.

~ Robert Bly ~

(Meditations on the Insatiable Soul)


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