In Place of The Book Review Section

Poem by Andy Oram

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The blissful cloud of summer indolence

Benumb’d my eyes

John Keats

Afternoon, the time to take a horizontal perspective
    and to attempt the book review section
        but instead to drift inevitably out to sea
            whose waves lap against one’s thought
        just as they will embrace the shore long after we depart.
 
To give oneself over to wonder
    on glimpses still floating on the surface of one’s memory
            Of the clay that buttresses the cliffs—will it survive storms from another year?
            Of what bird left the tracks too large for the plucky sandpipers seen today
            Of the toddlers reaping knowledge from sand
                A new turn in the cycle...
                    Might they come to venerate this strand where the dry earth
                        converses with the uncompromising deep.