John Beaton Poems

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1.
The Breathing Sea

Whale-breath blasts up through the moonlight
in a bubble-net of vapor;
trade-winds catch the spout and droplets
stream through palm baleen on Maui.
...

2.
Wildfire

It starts with lightning, tinder, and a gust.
Smoke-jumper teams, at this stage, may contain it—
clad in Nomex, ‘chuting down to dust
they rip along the fireline like a bayonet,
...

3.
When I Am Old

Hie me to the hill-ground,
the high hill ground of Scotland,
to battle bladed wind-blasts
my forebears fought before me,
...

4.
Wolves

I'm wakened, drawn toward the ice-thin window,
to witness scenes as faint and still as death.
How bleak the moon; how bare the trees and meadows;
sky's pale maw overhangs
...

5.
Halloween Poem—my Friend Dave

Well, I went for a walk last Halloween
on the scariest night you've ever seen.
and to prove to myself I was not afraid
I went to a place where the dead are laid:
...

6.
Request For A Dance

Step with me, float with me, over the floor;
weave with me, waltz with me, out through the door;
slide to the deck where the crowdedness clears;
glide through the garden and tear off your fears.
...

7.
A Sweetness Absent From The Ocean Air

The Weeping Window bleeds ceramic poppies
that blush St. Magnus's cathedral wall
and each seems miniscule among them all—
the throng comprises nigh a million copies:
...

8.
A Moment White

(for snow)

You lit upon the land one night,
a night of drifting lightness
...

9.
Fiddle Flight

The mayflies ride the glides in slow procession
above the burbling eddies' low percussion;
their up-wings test the airs and dance in twitches.
His toe-taps and his fiddle-notes commingle,
...

10.
In Living Colour

In Living Colour

From parting seas, the grey's great knuckled back,
where barnacles and orange whale-lice ride,
...

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