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Fog Horns

By David Mason b. 1954 David Mason

The loneliest days,

damp and indistinct,

sea and land a haze.

And purple fog horns

blossomed over tides—

bruises being born

in silence, so slow,

so out there, around,

above and below.

In such hurts of sound

the known world became

neither flat nor round.

The steaming tea pot

was all we fathomed

of is and is not .

The hours were hallways

with doors at the ends

opened into days

fading into night

and the scattering

particles of light.

Nothing was done then.

Nothing was ever

done. Then it was done.

Source: Poetry (September 2004).

Biography

A teacher and editor, David Mason was born and raised in Bellingham, Washington. He earned a BA from Colorado College and an MA and PhD from the University of Rochester in New York. Mason’s collections of poetry include The Buried Houses (1991), winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize; The Country I Remember (1996), winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award; Arrivals (2004); and the verse novel Ludlow (2007), awarded the . . .

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