“Oceans” by Shirley Plummer
what is soluble or separable enters the oceans
from a stream that empties into the sea
from a lake, if lacking outlet
soaking into the earth
seeping through
emerging in rivulets
or evaporating into the sky
falling as rain on water
falling as rain on land
rainwashed dust and smoke,
even sand is moved by the sea
and the edge of one sea blends into the next
You, love, may be in the smoke, the mist
or all the seven seas
I, solidly grounded, weighted in place
look on the Pacific remembering
We are not so far apart perhaps
as you from this world
or I from where I left you last
slipping through my fingers
into the small stream near the Atlantic
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Shirley Plummer’s Artist Statement: A wandering native of Oregon finally returned, I long ago published several poems; but now, with support from a wonderful group of writers, I have begun writing and publishing again. I now live on the central Oregon Coast between national forest and ocean. My first collection the task of falling rain appeared March 2016.
