Monthly Archives: September 2015

First Day of Autumn, Ogunquit, ME

Along the Shore

Along the Shore

First Day of Autumn Ogunquit, ME

For only one day

to experience the ocean:

storm clouds have bundled

up into soft blankets,

settled along the horizon

leaving waves stirred

into white crests that roll

across wide expanses.

Wind whips their summits,

sends sea spray high

up to a sky of azure blue.

They crash gently against

the shore where sandpipers

on stick legs scissor

back and forth in front

of edges of foam.

Fine sand, pushed by breezes,

slides across the beach

in intricate patterns of tan.

A boat unfurls large sails, skims

beyond the strand to finally

disappear below horizon.

The air is cool, sun warms skin

on this first morning of autumn.

If I could spend only

one day by the sea

and you were here,

it would be enough.

Lainie Senechal

Published in the journal Ibbetson Street, Ibbetson Street Press, Somerville, MA 2009

September, Isles of Shoals

Smuttynose, Isle of ShoalsSmuttynose, Isles of Shoals

 

September, Isles of Shoals

At rest on old wooden rockers

with basket weave seats

along porch of Oceanic Hotel;

beach plums have ripened;

flocks of cormorants gather;

cricket chorus drowned by

constant call of gulls

from slick granite rocks

that line the shore.

In distance, slant of rain

skids across the bay;

light turns from yellow to gray;

lightening flashes illuminate sky;

sailboats strain to reach harbor

as storm approaches Star Island.

Lainie Senechal