Four Poems

On Looking at the Pictures in Moby-Dick

Whael, hval, wal, hvalur:
  whales all, whales ever
rocking with us in our chair,
  mother and son together.

Humpback, finback, pilot, blue:
  flukes aloft, flukes peaking
over seas and blankets too,
  as we are rocking.

Winter nights, when snow fills
  the room, we shiver
as gales and staving whales
  their blows deliver.

Painted ocean, painted ship,
  painted sea-hawks sweeping:
from my hand your fingers slip
...