from Saturday, September 6, 2003:
Leelanau Peninsula, Lake Michigan


There are many seagulls standing on boulders
stuck out in the low water
facing toward the sun. All of them
facing toward the sun, but me
facing toward the deepest blue
of the deeper water.

What idea in that water?

The sky is cloudless
yet grey. The figures are yellow and blue.
White caps over there
breaking over the very thin peninsula.

Algae at my feet
sways with the lap current.
Wind at my back.

Algae makes water seem lime colored, then 20 feet away:
cerulean... 20 miles away: blue
as the stripes on the flag.

Open the book:
"Under the seams runs the pain."

Rather be a lake and feel no pain?

"I try to think of the respectable parts
of a person."

Two figures
and the duck
who swoops
past them.

Everyone out to meet the water
like the final scene in La Dolce Vita.

For now:
try to embrace the world
rather than find things to reject about it.

"Write a song; I'll sing along.
So you will know that you are sane.
You're on top of the world again!"

*

I came to this water over a field of medium sized rocks.

I came to this water to think.

No ideas but in things.