Autumn Sea
You’ve come to hear the rush
and release over the sands,
the lungs of the ocean breathing.
Sentinel stones anchored on the coast
witness fire on the water
as the sun dies in October flames.
Anything that ventures into
that glow is washed gold,
and gold paints the rocky headland.
A hem of lace spills at your feet,
withdrawn as the ocean dancers
revise their flourishes
with every spill of the waves.
It’s darkening now, time for home
and sleep.
You leave, taking with you
memory of the flow and ebb,
the gleam of burnished crests
pulling your footprints
out to the planes of the sea.
Into basins of deep blue
rounding the stones of the earth,
rolling out and away,
always, always away.
Judge’s comments:
This poem paints a picture of the sea. The ocean has "lungs" and the sun "dies. Then it turns to the memory that many of us take with us when we leave.
Carolyn Adams
Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have appeared in Steam Ticket, Cimarron Review, Evening Street Review, Dissident Voice, and Blueline Magazine, among others. She is the editor and publisher of the Oregon Poetry Calendar. Having authored four chapbooks, her full-length volume, Going Out to Gather has been published by Fernwood Press. She has been nominated multiple times for both Best of the Net and a Pushcart prize.