Poets Salon: Steps to the Sea

POETS SALON

– 7/10/19

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

It was the steps to the sea that counted. I heard them from afar, lured by the deep. One after another they named themselves with a loud voice. The same voice that called me, as child, to look through a peephole in the ferry floor, into a dark mysterious world of overlapping language, intense and emphatic.

to this day
tracing characters
carved in stone
calligraphy of the sea
etched on my heart

You will not be here forever, said the sea. Every step counts.

~ Kath Abela

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300 Steps Bellagio, Italy. Watercolor painting by Ron Libbrecht

M.Kei

if you read my poems,
you will think you know me,
but all you will really know
is the sea

300 steps—
a long tumble
to the sea
from which my heart
will never recover

the cliff tops
tinged by dawn,
boats still
anchored in
the chilly harbor

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The Sea, Croatia (Photo – Tomislav Maretic)

Tomislav Maretic

moonless night —
the lamplight fishing boats
scattered
on the open sea
spreading darkness

sitting
on the shore:
the high tide,
a big sigh
of the sea

calm sea
I swim noiselessly
to the cove
where a nigtingale
sings in the bush

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Dubrovnik 2016 (Photo – Brendon Kent)

Dianne Moritz

hidden enclave
where sea meets shore
as tides ebb and flow
otters frolic
cool sea mist on our skin

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Steps to the Sea (Photo – Tomislav Maretic)

Charles Harmon

wind on the water
still reminds me of her voice
sounds of the ocean
her sea song
played upon a shell

prettiest seashells
are found far from the shore
deep underwater
well beyond reach
daring a dive

captain taught me
to see past the horizon
beyond the blue
around the world
with a weather eye

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Photo and one-line poem by Brendon Kent

Brendon Kent

steep steps down…
castle walls crumbling
into swifts

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sea moon…
a wave breaking
a sigh

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where the sea ends
somewhere else

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his ashes releasing herself

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Queen Mary (Photo – Charles Harmon)

Steps to the Sea: Quotes and Credits

M. Kei‘s first poem here, a ryuka, is a song-like poetry form from Okinawa that is similar to tanka, but written on four lines with three lines of equal length and the last one shorter. He says: “I don’t usually write ryuka; it just turned out that way. Let the poem be what it wants to be. As a tall ship sailor, I often write while at sea. Being a sailor and being a tanka poet are alike: you must pay attention to details, do your best, then let go and let it be whatever it will be. You can’t force either the sea or poetry to do as you command.” Kei is an award-winning poet who lives on Maryland’s Eastern shore. He’s the editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka, and Stacking Stones, An Anthology of Short Tanka Sequences (Sept 2018). His most recent collection of poetry is January, A Tanka Diary. He is also the author of the award-winning gay Age of Sail adventure novels, Pirates of the Narrow Seas.

Tomislav Maretic lives by the sea near Zagreb, Croatia. He says: “The sea provokes thoughts. Someone said ‘the sea is soulless and so imaginative’, but it’s so imaginative that it’s hard to think it is without soul, especially at night, when you look at the starry sky with the noise of the wave. Thoughts emerge by themselves and rise…you can feel oneness of the Space.” Maretić is a physician, a specialist for infectious diseases and he was working almost 40 years in University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb. He lives in a little place near Zagreb City (Gornje Vrapče) with his framily (wife and four children). Retired, he still works part-time in Čakovec – a little city in the north of Croatia. He has been writing haiku for forty years. His haiku have received several awards and prizes and were published in several journal and magazines, online and in print.

Dianne Moritz bought a house overlooking ocean in Moss Beach, CA, several miles down Highway 1 from San Francisco. On weekends, I’d fly up from LA to visit and, together, we’d explore that magical place of sun, sea, and dusty back roads. Paul often cooked his native Dutch dishes for me as we watched the sunset over the Pacific…toasting our friendship and good fortune. Dianne is a former Los Angeles K- 3 teacher. She now lives in Southampton, NY where she writes poetry and picture books for children. Her book, Hey Little Beachcomber, is to be released in paperback sometime in 2019.

Charles Harmon, a science teacher, lives and works in Los Angeles. He joins Poets on Site often in Pasadena for meetings in the Storrier Stearns garden and our Living Room Gallery. He enjoys cooking for his wife and three children. He has published his haiku. senryu and tanka in many online and print journals including Atlas Poetica and The Haiku Foundation online dialogue series. He says: “Born in Kansas surrounded by amber waves of grain, we soon moved out to California, where I grew up near the ocean and also spent time in the mountains with lakes and rivers. I have spent much time overseas and have enjoyed many great oceans and rivers. Water may be the original home of life, and is certainly necessary for survival. For food, transportation, and recreation the world’s oceans and waterways are important for all life and must be preserved. There is certainly a spiritual aspect here also, that inspires a profound awe and respect for the mysteries of the universe and creation, that motivates artists to describe and scientists to explain. I love being out on the water on boats and ships, and have been lucky enough to help protect and serve as a lifeguard and an Auxiliarist on rescue boat safety patrols. Just this 4th of July after the fireworks show near the Queen Mary in Long Beach we helped save seven boaters who had fallen into the cold water when their small boat capsized. It is an honor to help others, and poetry helps express how I feel about nature and life.”

Brendon Kent lives in the small countryside village of Botley (circa 890AD) within Southampton, England. He has been writing short form poetry for many years and is published in most leading journals worldwide. Brendon is a member of the British Haiku Society, the World Haiku Association and he’s the Head Teacher online for international haiku at Haiku University (Tokyo). He has recently released a collection of haiku, senryu, tanka titled ‘moon on water’ by Alba Publishing June 2018. His poem “steep steps down ” appeared in Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Association.

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response, especially in the form of a short poem, by leaving a comment below.

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