Do what you love Terra Hawk

A few weeks ago I had the privilege to read at an event called, Love, Poetry and Chocolate, hosted by Victoria’s  Poet Laureate, Yvonne Blomer. As part of the occasion, a name was drawn after each reader and the person picked would have a poem written for them by that poet.

And this is how I met Terra Hawk (such a marvelous name). After sitting down with Terra and getting to know some of her hopes, likes and challenges, I wrote the following poem.

Thank you Terra for permission to post this.

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Do what you love Terra Hawk

Do you see how the sand kneels at the frothy edge,
offers itself to the sea’s shifting forms,
to rock shoulders, to night storms,

to the layered blues of marine mists, to wisps
of steam from some wrought-iron wreckage,
even, to the plaintive whistle of a western grebe?

Do you recall the stone you pocketed,
peppered with black mica,
wasn’t its shamanic pattern a revelation?

Remember the sudden surfacing
of a glistening seal head,
didn’t you almost shiver at the assurance of yourself?

Recollect how the orange beak of an oystercatcher,
like a petal of a flying poppy,
left a streak of insight?

Now linger, lie, lift your eyes to find your letter of love,
written in the Kanji of kelp,
written in the helical skywriting of a hawk,

written in the cadmium flash from a lighthouse,
its line of rippling light racing on the water
toward you.

And when recursive tides of pain
and the undertow of dread,
threaten to pull you under, 

when the world’s soulless politics
with its corporate technocrats
suggest you don’t exist,

then rise, glide, sing, soar to the sound of gull and sea,
hear the susurration of ocean rain
resurrect your name,

float in this salty hammock
within the amplitude of waves
and listen, with the ear of your heart,

the day is calling:
do what you love Terra Hawk.

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