This day

April 17, 1986

How the tidal pool, pure light, Holds gull, dory, jutting rock And how ledge and reflection meet without a seam Probably inhere in the nature of dawn. And whether, view not free of viewer, This morning can be seen free of this morning, Your wedding day? Or seen pool Free of remembered pool? No clue in the way A stone flat as my hand, flung sidewise, Scarcely dots the sheen -- ``Spat-spat-spat-spat plunk'' Disturbing neither image: Today's gull, wings flared and then tucked; You, not yet four, immersed in summer here Or at a pool a gull's glide north -- How many gulls ago? -- Seeing the pool as forever, unaware How many summers would choose for you This island, this chapel, this day.