Blue Whale I

Moon-possessed oceans lunge

against roots of mountains;

intellect drawn to question,

to crush mind as body,

blind eye's peering.



In double darkness

creation's mightiest shadow

moves self-exiled, drawn

to surface on ice-green wastes;

earth spinning and plunging,

blind-led through blackness.


Blue Whale II

Seas move with earth's turning;

rotate a pail of water, feel its weight and force,

then consider how the vast Pacific

lunges against the roots of mountains



Ocean reflects the questioner in his question,

contains a world hidden, dark,

to crush the mind as its depths the frame,

even while eyes' blind lamps peer.



In that double darkness glides

creation's mightiest shadow, the blue whale,

warm-blooded, a breather of sweet air,

turned back to exile in ocean, millennia ago.



The whale in all his tribes, great and small,

is without natural enemy, a master of oceans;

his breath exhales, his mighty flukes smash down

among ice-green wastes beyond landfall,

on blind earth that spins and plunges

through its own immeasurable black oceans.





Copyright © Bernard Gilhooly - All Rights Reserved