The ocean knows that
we are choosing not to know
that we speak in the old vocabulary
of waves dancing to the shore,
and white caps
sparkling in the sunlight
–the romantic language of the past.
Will we ever learn to hear
her angry-mother cries?
Might we learn to see ourselves
in the ocean’s struggle to survive?
Michael S. Glaser, has published eight collections of his own work and served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2004 – 2009. He now co-leads workshops which embrace poetry as a means of self-reflection. He is the co-editor of The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton (BOA 2012). (more at http://www.michaelsglaser.com)
“that we are choosing not to know” seems indeed the self-destructive reaction of too many: the question gently expressed at the end of this poem sounds a clarion call…