to the wind

to the wind

everything you heard
was always to do
with those winds
that strum the rigging
at shore even at
your desk you remembered
the lee and the windward*
side and wondered
which shore you
were caught on here
and if to windward
how were you
safe when
it sounds
in the teeth
of it

the other shore
leeward
the lee shore
where hulls splintered
and drove into sand
and your eyes and
mouth filled with it
and choked in
salt your lungs
aching burst
out like a
wave
i dreaded
that shore

my father
tried to make
clear the difference
to me, would
ask me to
point out
the weather shore
where you picnic
on grass that
always made
your legs itch
the scratch of
a dry twig
somewhere
could wander
up into hills
a short fall
to the sea

i’ve found the
meanings have
come adrift
can hardly tell
one shore from
the other the
cut of light
where everything
is still
and the dark
i drink in
like a beer
with friends
on a wooden
balcony
the stars
fanned larger
on that
wind

my father
was perhaps
a master
of those winds
yet they mastered
him are
hard now
on me,
i guess
he knew
the change
the switch
of shores
nothing to
do with
luck
or art.

beijing
march 2010

*The following extract from Wikipedia goes some way to explaining these, for landlubbers, somewhat confusing terms:

‘The terms “lee shore” and “windward” or “ward shore” or “weather shore” are nautical terms used to describe a stretch of shoreline. A lee shore is one that is to the lee side of a vessel — meaning the wind is blowing towards it. A weather shore has the wind blowing from inland over it out to sea. For example, a person standing on a shore when the wind is blowing out to sea (or any large body of water) is standing on a weather shore. If the wind is blowing into shore from the sea, the person is on a lee shore.

The “lee” of a boat is the side that the wind touches last as it crosses the boat; in the diagram it is left or port side of the boat. The boat in the diagram has a lee shore to its west.

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