Wakes and Contrails
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Away,
Far, far behind, is all that they can say.
~ Arthur Hugh Clough,
“Where Lies the Land?”
The ship sails on. It passes. Splitting foam
Emerges, right and left in angles, white.
Behind the vessel angles start to roam
Across the river or the seas. Despite
Geometry of surging calmness, these
Shapes spell a certainty like fate. Sharp jets
Perform the same in upper air degrees.
Far contrails are like souls of our regrets
Because they represent the passage we
Have made to regions where the wide, complex
Past never is recovered in the lee
Of thrusting forward. Each is like a hex.
..Each wake and contrail cuts across some blue.
….White lines cut off and blanknesses ensue.
~ Phillip Whidden
Photo by Melissa Valente
https://www.instagram.com/p/CM6Z_dyAoG4/?utm_medium=share_sheet