MOON OVER NINOMIYA BEACH*

by Emily Black


I look deeply at a Japanese woodblock print,
and almost become the small figure standing
on shore surrounded by frothy sea foam.
A graceful evergreen perched on a craggy
cliff bends its boughs in prayer over a curving
coastline far below. Clouds in the night sky
appear to be tangible like spun sugar.
 
I don’t know where I must have seen this print
before, but every aspect of it rings in my soul
like a bell that tolls to call me into that world.
I must have been a painter or a photographer in a
past life. I see things as though a frame encompasses
my view and gives me a unique perspective, a place
to focus. I sink into the viscous texture of this print.
 
A full moon over low, striated clouds illuminates their
ghostly presence and turns the sea’s horizon silver. A
solitary figure, in silhouette, walks along a sage-green
shore, embraced by heaven and earth, kissed by moonlight.


* * * * *

*Here is a link to a print of MOON OVER NINOMIYA BEACH.

Emily Black, the second woman to graduate from the University of Florida in Civil Engineering, engaged in a long engineering career as the only woman in a sea of men. Lately she’s been busy writing vignettes of her life and has two poems in the March issue of Verse-Virtual and more to be printed in the June issue of Door is A Jar and the October issue of Sac Magazine. Emily was selected as Poet of the Week by Poetry Super Highway for the week of March 22-28, 2021.