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