“

Now reading

No Wonder

There was a breath that pushed the ships across the sea
And puffed its cheeks and became their boilers.

But when the wind churned into a storm
And the boats drew in their sails or simmered by piers

There was no one with an eye behind the wind
To take in a fall in a forest of masts,

To see teeth in the clouds clenching with lightning,
To mumble with distant thunder or spy a mime

In the branches of trees swaying at the edge of sight.
It was no wonder for those passing from the real to the
  real,

Yet there was so much of the unreal that might have
  been saved;
Before the whitecapped wave broke on its own extinction.

It was as if the storm had come at night or not at all
And the log books recorded only the passage and ports.

41,493

poems

4,155

poets

207

poetic terms

Browse the collection

Explore the archive →

Selected

Poems worth returning to

The glossary

The language about poetry

From aubade to zuihitsu, 207 definitions of the forms, figures, and schools that shape the line.

Explore the glossary→