two south coast poems (a) this morning i came within sound of the sea

for a man whose eyes till now were a bed of rock
whose hands were drier than deserts
the sea's voice drove fear up through the valley
the tributaries meandering inside me longing for outlet
shrivelled even as their own courses became straight

my demand for ocean died now the ocean approached

the clouds put up with a lot of invective from me today
not a stone lay upon the earth in its right place
the valley upheaved into a mountain and the sea froze
the hardness in me was all fluid - i cried to be melted away

i could not bring myself down into the green pastures
or lay myself out amidst fruits and believe the sun
the truth i'd been stumbling towards i hated the heart of
the sayings of those i'd killed enchanted my ears
my instinct was to turn and run inland forever

and on the morrow i went down to the sea
and stood for a long time for the waters to calm me
i let my feet root among the shingle and seaweed
and my mind bobbed on the cove's waves absorbing their rhythms
what i had come for i found looking for me - and the green
world conceiving inside me smashed through my skin

(b) the sheer stupidity of the sea

going on and on mounting the land
and falling away again
gathering to itself a compendium
of its own tricks

not thinking
that any one cares which way the tides
alter the look of the beach
but just doing it like an animal
because it has to - having nothing else
it could reasonably do and remain
sea

it's that stupidity
in all its sheerness that people
(unable to admit in themselves)
find to worship in water - and that's why
they can't get it out of their dreams
and (near it) regress into children
(the only unashamed animal-bit
they have left in themselves)

all
classrooms should be down by the sea