Patroling Barnegat
WILD, wild the storm, and the sea high running,
Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering,
Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing,
Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing,
Out in the shadows there milk-white combs careering,
On beachy slush and sand spirts of snow fierce slanting,
Where through the murk the easterly death-wind breasting,
Through cutting swirl and spray watchful and firm advancing,
(That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal flaring?)
Slush and sand of the beach tireless till daylight wending,
Steadily, slowly, through hoarse roar never remitting,
Along the midnight edge by those milk-white combs careering,
A group of dim, weird forms, struggling, the night confronting,
That savage trinity warily watching.





Related poetry:
- Tears TEARS! tears! tears! In the night, in solitude, tears; On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand; […]...
- OPEN TABLE MANY a guest I’d see to-day, Met to taste my dishes! Food in plenty is prepar’d, Birds, and game, and […]...
- Pretty Halcyon Days How pleasant to sit on the beach, On the beach, on the sand, in the sun, With ocean galore within […]...
- Sister Cat Cat stands at the fridge, Cries loudly for milk. But I’ve filled her bowl. Wild cat, I say, Sister, Look, […]...
- High waving heather 'neath stormy blasts bending High waving heather ‘neath stormy blasts bending, Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars, Darkness and glory rejoicingly blending, Earth […]...
- On Home Beaches Back, in my fifties, fatter that I was then, I step on the sand, belch down slight horror to walk […]...
- A Paumanok Picture TWO boats with nets lying off the sea-beach, quite still, Ten fishermen waiting-they discover a thick school of mossbonkers-they drop […]...
- Give Me Women, Wine, and Snuff GIVE me women, wine, and snuff Untill I cry out “hold, enough!” You may do so sans objection Till the […]...
- Sparkles from The Wheel 1 WHERE the city’s ceaseless crowd moves on, the live-long day, Withdrawn, I join a group of children watching-I pause […]...
- The Space Coast Florida An Airedale rolling through green frost, Cabbage palms pointing their accusing leaves At whom, petulant waves breaking at my […]...
- In the Night Cruel? I think there never was a cheating More cruel, thro’ all the weary days than this! This is no […]...
- Beach Glass While you walk the water’s edge, Turning over concepts I can’t envision, the honking buoy Serves notice that at any […]...
- One Sweeps By ONE sweeps by, attended by an immense train, All emblematic of peace-not a soldier or menial among them. One sweeps […]...
- To a Locomotive in Winter THEE for my recitative! Thee in the driving storm, even as now-the snow-the winter-day declining; Thee in thy panoply, thy […]...
- Women Washing Their Hair THEY have painted and sung The women washing their hair, And the plaits and strands in the sun, And the […]...
- Adveniat Regnum Tuum Thy kingdom come! Yea, bid it come! But when Thy kingdom first began On earth, Thy kingdom was a home, […]...
- Turns And Movies: Zudora Here on the pale beach, in the darkness; With the full moon just to rise; They sit alone, and look […]...
- Irony An arid daylight shines along the beach Dried to a grey monotony of tone, And stranded jelly-fish melt soft upon […]...
- Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling THOU orb aloft full-dazzling! thou hot October noon! Flooding with sheeny light the gray beach sand, The sibilant near sea […]...
- Sand Scribblings THE WIND stops, the wind begins. The wind says stop, begin. A sea shovel scrapes the sand floor. The shovel […]...
- People Who Live People who live by the sea Understand eternity. They copy the curves of the waves, Their hearts beat with the […]...
- Hoodlums I AM a hoodlum, you are a hoodlum, we and all of us are a world of hoodlums-maybe so. I […]...
- Traveling Through The Dark Traveling through the dark I found a deer Dead on the edge of the Wilson River road. It is usually […]...
- Round About Midnight Jazz radio on a midnight kick, Round about Midnight. Sitting on the bed, With a jazz type chick Round about […]...
- Crab When I eat crab, slide the rosy Rubbery claw across my tongue I think of my mother. She’d drive down […]...
- To George Sand: A Desire THOU large-brained woman and large-hearted man, Self-called George Sand! whose soul, amid the lions Of thy tumultuous senses, moans defiance […]...
- Down on the Shore Down on the shore, on the sunny shore! Where the salt smell cheers the land; Where the tide moves bright […]...
- Meeting At Night The grey sea and the long black land; And the yellow half-moon large and low; And the startled little waves […]...
- Winter Seascape The sea runs back against itself With scarcely time for breaking wave To cannonade a slatey shelf And thunder under […]...
- Ghost House I DWELL in a lonely house I know That vanished many a summer ago, And left no trace but the […]...
- The Forsaken Merman Come, dear children, let us away; Down and away below! Now my brothers call from the bay, Now the great […]...
- Trinity Place THE GRAVE of Alexander Hamilton is in Trinity yard at the end of Wall Street. The grave of Robert Fulton […]...
- Still hear the waves It was a brave day under an endlessly clear sky That extended forever from our valley To the unfathomably distant […]...
- The Heart Of The Sourdough There where the mighty mountains bare their fangs unto the moon, There where the sullen sun-dogs glare in the snow-bright, […]...
- Concert Party (EGYPTIAN BASE CAMP) They are gathering round…. Out of the twilight; over the grey-blue sand, Shoals of low-jargoning men drift […]...
- In Romney Marsh As I went down to Dymchurch Wall, I heard the South sing o’er the land I saw the yellow sunlight […]...
- Dreaming The Breasts Mother, Strange goddess face Above my milk home, That delicate asylum, I ate you up. All my need took You […]...
- Mollymook All week, in this rented house, sea spray and whispers of wind weave through the eucalypts, like a Sondheim melody. […]...
- By the Grey Gulf-water Far to the Northward there lies a land, A wonderful land that the winds blow over, And none may fathom […]...
- Trebetherick We used to picnic where the thrift Grew deep and tufted to the edge; We saw the yellow foam flakes […]...