Returning with the Grays, poem by Jonathan Yungkans (BEACH AND POOL MEMORIES Poetry and Prose Series)

Returning with the Grays
by Jonathan Yungkans

they used to hunt whales
from here       row longboats
offshore as gray whales
migrated even the cliff
seems a beached leviathan
fossilized but crumbling

the Pacific reclaiming its
own       the stone-strewn
beach on which I teeter
turns ironic in my shoes
since off-balance brought
me here not to topple but

shift       the tectonic push
which governs this land
pulls       blackness clings
to me like congealed oil
toward it       the pitch
night leaves only sound

barely breath as a damp
chill leeches past bones
taps into the rip currents
lurking beneath silence’s
cliff edge       tide pools
despair’s crash in waves

which I can only ride till
the surf breaks and I turn
a stone smoothed by tide’s
constant caress into which
I settle       know like the
whales I had to return here

SOURCE: A much earlier version of this poem appeared in Snowglobe.

PHOTO: “Whale watching season, Palos Verdes Peninsula” by Luis Sinco, L.A. Times (Dec. 2012).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Partly from growing up nearby, partly from my mother having a business acquaintance in the area, I gravitated early toward the Palos Verdes Peninsula [Southern California] and drove to it whenever I could. Portuguese Bend, where this poem takes place, remains a strong draw, especially when I need its quiet and the ocean to lend me something approaching peace of mind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jonathan Yungkans is a Los-Angeles-based poet, writer, and photographer. Growing up in Gardena, California, not far from the Pacific Ocean and at the time still predominantly Japanese-American, left him with three things—an intense love for the sea, a deep appreciation for cultures other than his own, and the outlook (and resulting questions) of an outsider aware that he didn’t quite fit into his surroundings. Subsequent years as an ESL [English as Second Language] teacher and a publications editor for a multi-cultural Christian ministry only added to the latter two of these. His works have appeared in Poet Lore, Poetry/LA, Twisted Vine Literary Journal, and other publications.

The Clarity of Hope by Maureen E. Doallas (I Am Waiting Poetry Series)

THE CLARITY OF HOPE
by Maureen E. Doallas

I am waiting, hope-
ridden on the darkest day
of the year.

This morning, in the wash
of green-foamed sea, the bloated
body of a fin whale lists, hushing

the pod’s fracturing echolocation.
The water, displaced, barely
conceals the gray-boned back,

so that I, adjusting my prayer
shawl that cannot be stretched
enough to cover

the living and what’s dying,
wait for some sign
its last great breath still holds.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: On the first day of winter, I happened upon an image of a huge, stranded, and listing fin whale. The association of darkness with death, which the image seemed to evoke, was apt; yet, in this season of hope-filled waiting, I allowed myself to consider the possibility that the animal remained alive.

IMAGE: “Orca” by Tamara Phillips. Prints available at fineartamerica.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maureen E. Doallas is the author of Neruda’s Memoirs: Poems (T.S. Poetry Press, 2011). Her work has appeared in Open to Interpretation: Water’s Edge, Open to Interpretation: Love & Lust, Oil and Water… And Other Things That Don’t Mix; Tania Runyan’s How to Read a Poem; and Felder Rushing’s book bottle trees. Her poems can be found at Broadsided Press (“Responses: Ebola 2014”), Split This Rock (“Poems that Resist Police Brutality & Demand Racial Justice”), Every Day Poems, The Woven Tale Press, The Found Poetry Review, The Victorian Violet Press & Journal, The Poetry Storehouse, Escape Into Life, and other online and print publications. She blogs at Writing Without Paper, is an Artist Watch editor for Escape Into Life, and has a small art business, Transformational Threads. Her interviews and features appear regularly at TweetSpeak Poetry.

I Was in Pismo Beach, poem by Chris Davidson

I WAS IN PISMO BEACH
by Chris Davidson

I was in Pismo Beach with my wife
and her mother Phyllis, and her husband Greg,
and we stayed in a hotel room on the second-floor,
with two queen-sized beds,
and Greg stood by the open door of the room,
smoking, looking out at the ocean, where he saw,
under thick white clouds lumbering cross the sky
like whales, whales—first time he’d seen them
in the wild, he said. And the smoke lifted
from his cigarette, and the mist from the whales
lifted as if in reply, and all of this
I don’t remember, none of it, not the trip
to Pismo Beach, not the whales,
but Phyllis does, for she talked about it
here when she came to visit last week .
My wife barely recalls it, sort of is
the phrase she uses. All was recounted
as we walked on a pier at a different beach—
myself, my wife, and Phyllis, who pushed
her grandchildren in the stroller, the sound
of water below bringing up the hotel, the smoke,
the whales and waves, whatever else.

“I Was in Pismo Beach” and other poetry by Chris Davidson appears in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose from over 70 authors in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Africa, available at Amazon.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Davidson’s writing has appeared in Zyzzyva, Alaska Quarterly Review, Burnside Review, Zocalo Public Square, The Rumpus, Jacket2, and elsewhere. He teaches at Biola University and lives in Seal Beach, California, with his wife and sons.

Photo: “Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County” (Courtesy of San Luis Obispo County website)

Learn more about California’s winter whale watching season here.

Happy Birthday, Herman Melville

We celebrate Herman Melville’s 194th birthday today with an erasure poem based on the opening page of Melville’s masterwork, Moby-Dick, courtesy of source material and erasure software at Wave Books.

CALL ME PARTICULAR
Erasure Poem by Silver Birch Press

In honor of the mighty Melville’s birthday, we invite our readers to create their own Moby-Dick-inspired erasure poems and email them to silver@silverbirchpress.com. We promise to post your creations! Get started at this link.

ABOUT HERMAN MELVILLE:  Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American writer best known for the novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained contemporary attention (the first, Typee, became a bestseller), but after literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the “Melville Revival” in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America. (Read more at Wikipedia.org.)

I Was in Pismo Beach, Poem by Chris Davidson

I WAS IN PISMO BEACH

by Chris Davidson

I was in Pismo Beach with my wife

and her mother Phyllis, and her husband Greg,

and we stayed in a hotel room on the second-floor,

with two queen-sized beds,

and Greg stood by the open door of the room,

smoking, looking out at the ocean, where he saw,

under thick white clouds lumbering cross the sky

like whales, whales—first time he’d seen them

in the wild, he said. And the smoke lifted

from his cigarette, and the mist from the whales

lifted as if in reply, and all of this

I don’t remember, none of it, not the trip

to Pismo Beach, not the whales,

but Phyllis does, for she talked about it

here when she came to visit last week .

My wife barely recalls it, sort of is

the phrase she uses. All was recounted

as we walked on a pier at a different beach—

myself, my wife, and Phyllis, who pushed

her grandchildren in the stroller, the sound

of water below bringing up the hotel, the smoke,

the whales and waves, whatever else.

“I Was in Pismo Beach” and other poetry by Chris Davidson will appear in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose from over 50 authors in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Africa — available March 15, 2013.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Davidson’s writing has appeared in Zyzzyva, Alaska Quarterly Review, Burnside Review, Zocalo Public Square, The Rumpus, Jacket2, and elsewhere. He teaches at Biola University and lives in Seal Beach, California, with his wife and sons.

Photo: “Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County” (Courtesy of San Luis Obispo County website)

Learn more about California’s winter whale watching season here.