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Song of the Sea to the Shore

By Robert Fanning Robert Fanning

Unraveling velvet, wave after wave, driven

by wind, unwinding by storm, by gravity thrown—

however, heaving to reach you, to find you, I've striven

undulant, erosive, blown—

or lying flat as glass for your falling clear

down: I can't swallow you. So why

have I felt I've reached you—as two reflected stars,

surfaced, lie near—as if the sky's

close element is one in me, where starfish

cleave to stones—if you're so far?

I've touched you, I know, but my rush

subsides; our meetings only leave desire's

fleeting trace. Every place I touch you

changes shape. Shore, lie down—

undo. I'll fill your thirsty bones with blue.

I'll flood your every cave and we'll be one.

Source: Poetry (August 2002).

Biography

Robert Fanning is the author of American Prophet (2009), The Seed Thieves (2006), and Old Bright Wheel (2003), which won the Ledge Press Poetry Award. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, the Atlanta Review, the Hawaii Review, and other journals. A professor of creative writing at Central Michigan University, Fanning's writing awards include a Creative Artist Grant from . . .

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