New Year Poem
“The Sea of Faith
Was once, too at the full, and round
earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright
girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing
roar…” – Matthew Arnold (Dover Beach)
I suppose it’s
ultimately personal
this
building of a life —
ground,
wall-block, hardwood, clamped metal
roof, about
a well-planted
corner-stone
of certain faith —
when the
earth-plot shakes to doubt,
window-panes
batter in
fear against cyclones,
some plump
rat rots under the boards with the stench
of horrible
news (you get the point) —
faith
surges like a triumphant vanguard
of
galloping waves off Gros Islet
to
spread its bounteous, cleansing surf
all
along the garbage-littered shore.
(c) John Robert Lee
Photo: © Sea at Gros Islet. J.R.Lee
