Wednesday 2 September 2020


IN THE MIDST OF WATER, 1974

by Moná Ó Loideáin Rochelle

Love is my name.                               
  Thomas Merton


By ripe September beach plums
violet-winged Drurys rest on rugosa rose.
Sultry heat penetrates her second-hand shift
as she walks sandy Wauwinet Road—
skies of scalloped honeysuckle cream
play with the Atlantic sea.

A breeze from the sea
and tastes of tart purple plums
recall a dream.
She is a rose
on heaven’s road
in search of love bereft.

Given to thrift,
she forages wild blueberries by the sea,
recalls Seeds of Contemplation on the road
to the sea, and becomes
a fragrant wild rose
in a mystic dream.

As if in another dream,
waves crash dunes on the long-shore drift,
spiced bayberries transpose
insanity to poetry
as she plumbs
Merton’s ode—          
  
Crazy saints walk a road,
sing verse, mind serene—
knowing beyond knowing love comes,
love lifts,
as a flower of light—fleur-de-lis,
chanting riptide polyphonic prose.

She laughs with the wild beach rose,
delights as the salt marsh road
ends at Coatue’s cobalt sea.
Dreaming daydreams,
shedding her sheer cotton shift,
plunging under a wave, she becomes

a sea rose, surfs the Gulf Stream,
recalls his ode, recalls her gift,
poetess kissed by September’s sun.    


* * * * *

"In the Midst of Water, 1974" was originally published in The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review. Winter 2015).

Moná Ó Loideáin Rochelle is published in The Southern Review, American Journal of Poetry, Notre Dame Review, Southword and elsewhere. She’s the author of On the Brink of the Sea (Cave Moon Press, 2019), and Mourning Dove (Finishing Line Press, 2014). All revenue from sale of On the Brink of the Sea is donated to Médecins Sans Frontières and Catholic Relief Services, for whom she volunteers. She holds a PhD and MPH from the University of Washington. https://monalydon.com/

1 comment:

  1. This was my first Sestina and as you can see I broke many rules. It was a time in my life when I was working on Nantucket Island the ER and on a spiritual journey. It was there I discovered Thomas Merton and his original "Seeds of Contemplation." Love by the sea.

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