Invocation to the Sea
Spirit of countless, briny swells
And falls of hissing foam:
Tide me far from taming shores--
From tea-room lace and boardroom doors;
Embrace me in your freedom song;
Weave your sea-sung molecules
Beneath my eager skin--
With pungent smell of mermaids locks
Awash against a thousand docks,
Arouse the dreamer closed within;
Anoint my brow with stinging spray,
Imprint in me the seabirds dance,
The wayward smile of slanting sail,
The roguery of windy chance;
Set my course upon the flood
Of rhymed and ancient quest:
Conjure darkness, summon fire
And raise Atlantis from my breast;
Let coraled walls of azure rise
And colonnades of airy space;
Let dark-eyed, soulful faces glance
From muraled figures draped in grace;
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Send for the poet, the priestess call,
Decanting song and prayer;
Let flesh be roasted, wine be poured,
And incense laced upon the air;
Atop the roof, the banners sling,
Beneath whose shade, let maidens sing
With weaving arm and arcing thigh,
In praise of sea and sun-clad sky;
Beneath the floor of marbled stone
In chambers cool and dim,
Align the jars, the prism glass,
The hemp, the feathers, melting wax
For the seeking eyes, the questing hands,
The wondering heart of wandering man;
Within the lofty, gracious halls,
Let wise ones come and go
To tell the tales and sing the songs
Of all that they have come to know;
And emissaries ever send, as on the ages roll,
Out to the utter yearning reaches--
The farthest shining golden beaches
Of my cerulean soul.
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- Susan Davis Glazier
August, 2000