The Cove

by Philip Arnold

The lurking weight of anchors
let go
    the smoked-glass waters of the cove.

I look through the haze
to the other side,
            a glimpse into residual night.

Gleanings of weather gathered along the horizon. 

Along the shore a red skiff extends
the pier,
      the tide’s swell seizing
the slack of the mooring rope to a    
                    Thwung

the deep vowel vibrating through taut,
wet braidings, between resistance

and the freedom
          of a break away.

I let go the rope,
release the waves that rise to tongue
at the corded line          
            as I am released from land,

as wave by wave my bow is aimed,
                  like a sounding,
to the horizon’s untouched measure.

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| Philip Arnold

Philip Arnold’s poem borrows from his experiences while traveling through the North Sea region.  His poems have appeared in
The Iowa Review, Southern Poetry Review, Skald (Wales), and in a collection, The Border Life, published by Lone Willow Press.