2 Big Sur Poems
Big Sur Poem #1:
My favorite things about Big Sur are:
Wet rocks in the sun,
And the pools of clear water that gather between them and the sand,
And the way my feet fit on top of them.
Sand-encrusted seaweed,
Countless harbor seals, their bodies strewn across the rocks, like fat fishes –
And the way one bats at another. I’d say - playfully, listlessly, reflexively.
Pale pink and browning-in-some-places flowers,
Bright orange moss that hangs in deep shade like neglected Christmas icicles from the bottoms of the Cypress branches,
The three turkey buzzards that wait in the leafless branches,
And the one quail who dashes madly across my path.
The heads of some sea otters that poke up from the isle of rock suspended in the ocean,
And how their barking carries;
The endless crush of ocean sound.
The broad, broad wings of birds that assemble paper-thing delicate parts,
And how they balance themselves on invisible winds,
Only flapping when they need to.
Big Sur Poem #2:
I admire –
The human commitment –
To doing the same things everyone else has done,
Like it’s the first time.
Rolling up my jeans and making flat-footed tracks across the wet sand,
Or kissing the back of a neck with my fingertips,
Still hasn’t gotten old yet.
