May 2015
I am a retired business-to-business PR and publishing professional residing in northern New Jersey with my wife and son and a shrinking menagerie of merry pets. I began writing poetry (not very well) 100 years ago as an undergraduate at Georgetown University, where I earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English Literature. My poems have appeared recently in Contemporary American Voices (I was the Featured Poet in the January 2015 issue), the Wilderness House Literary Review, Blue Monday Review, and Atavic Poetry. In 2013, I celebrated (mostly by smiling a lot) the publication of my first poetry chapbook, What Comes Next, by Finishing Line Press. A lifelong Giants fan (New York and San Francisco), I still can't believe I lived long enough to see them win three World Series in five years. If you'd like to see more of my work, please click on http://www.whlreview.com/no-9.4/poetry/JamesKeane.pdf.
Seascape
May
a sailboat floating
in and out of the haze
above the horizon
settle for a while
for nothing, though a smile may fade
in the sunlight sinking
through, to warmly embrace
the legs of jade
pinning only
you
to the softening edge
in the cloud of water’s
blue cushion. While a sailboat
floating in and out of the haze
above the horizon
settles settles settles settles
for no one
even you two, will his wading through
to you come to mute
your weighted grace,
or hoist
one woman and one man above
and beyond
rooting
in silent space
while the soft blue waves
finally get pushy, rushing
so far away
for a while
from simply unsettling
a sailboat floating to be first
to kiss a woman
and a fading smile
never lifted
from the beginning.
And now your man forever
jaded in the sunken sunlight
raising all eyes, is ready
to wade away, and grinning
above all rooted legs
and beyond all muted clouds
floating into the settling
haze
above and beyond
the horizon.
Credit: “Seascape” was previously published in my chapbook of poems titled What Comes Next (Finishing Line Press).
©2015 James Keane