BEACH POEMS BY VALERIE WORTH

Hello and happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit amazing poet-teacher Mary Lee at A Year of Reading for Roundup!

And now, for more Valerie Worth! (See sidebar for previous posts in this series.) Today's theme is the beach, because who doesn't love the beach? Actually I can think of a few people... and I have my own peculiarities about the beach. Read on!

starfish

Spined

With sparks,

Limbed

With flames,

Climbing

The dark

To cling

And shine

Until the

Slow tide

Turns

Again:

Not even

Knowing

What stars

Are,

But

Even so,

The

Same.

- Valerie Worth

I find starfish so inspiring. Their ability to regenerate -- I mean, what a great metaphor for all the ways we can grow and change and rebuild our lives after hardship.

crab

The dead crab

Lies still,

Limp on dry sand,

All strength to crawl

Gone from his

Hard shell--

But he keeps a shape

Of old anger

Curved along his claws.

- Valerie Worth

One of my favorite memories from taking kids to the beach is going out after dark with flashlights to spot crabs. 

And THAT reminds me of a date I went on in high school: the boy went to a more rural school than I did, and he picked me up in a pick-up truck. We went to a dance at his high school, and afterwards we went spotting for deer. That's right: spotting for deer. This involved driving into a pasture and shining the high beams toward the edge of the woods. Sure enough, before long, we saw red eyes and deer leaping along the treeline. The boy I was with was pretty excited. It was a neat experience -- kind of like fishing, with all the waiting -- but that boy wasn't the boy for me.

kite

The kite, kept

Indoors, wears

Dread paper

On tight-

Boned wood,

Pulls at the tied

Cord only

By its weight –

But held

To the wind,

It is another thing,

Turned strong,

Struck alive,

Wild to be torn

Away from the hand

Into high air:

Where it rides

Alone,

Glad,

A small, clear

Wing, having

Nothing at all

To do

With string.

- Valerie Worth

There's something about a kite, isn't there? Here's a pic of the kite we flew earlier this year in Destin, Florida.

barefoot

After that tight

Choke of sock

And blunt

Weight of shoe,

The foot can feel

Clover's green

Skin

Growing,

And the fine

Invisible

Teeth

Of gentle grass,

And the cool

Breath

Of the earth

Beneath.

- Valerie Worth

One of my kids hates the feel of sand between his toes (or on his skin anywhere). And while this poem is about bare feet in grass, when I think about being barefooted, I think about the beach. I mean, shoes are pointless on the beach! And me personally? I love the feel of sand. Especially wet sand or cool night sand.

seashell

My father's mother

Picked up the shell

And turned it about

In her hand that was

Crinkled, glossy and

Twined with veins,

The fingers rumpled

Into soft roses

At the knuckles, and

She said, “Why did

That little creature

Take so much trouble

To be beautiful?”

- Valerie Worth

That question at the end is one that we could ask of so many things in the world... so much beauty for no reason at all except to be beautiful. And don't we need beauty?! It reminds me of the great John Muir quote:

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”

Also: have you seen this pic of what sand looks like when it's magnified?

sun

The sun

Is a leaping fire

Too hot

To go near,

But it will still

Lie down

In warm, yellow squares

On the floor

Like a flat

Quilt, where

The cat can curl

And purr.

- Valerie Worth

Again, a poem not set at the beach but one I can't separate from the beach. While I prefer shade any day and love the beach at night far better than during the day, the is sun something, isn't it? I recently enjoyed this article about a large coronal hole near the sun's north pole. And who can resist the "warm, yellow squares" in this poem?

Wishing all of you warm yellow squares... summer vacation will be over in these parts in a week and a half. Too fast, I say. Too fast!