Nature

Paths

by Cale Young Rice 1872–1943

From Sea Poems (1921)

Nature

Crushing in my hand
The bay as I pass,
Drinking in its fragrance
With the sea's scent,
While gull-wings write
Poems white and fast
On the blue sky
That is soft with content;
Crushing in my hand
The bay and the juniper,
While I record
Each line the gulls write,
I go by sea paths
Down to the sea's edge,
I go by heart paths
Deep into delight.

Simple is my joy
As the little sandpiper's,
Who follows beside me
With silvery song;
Blither than the breeze,
That skims great billows
Nor knows how deep
Is their flow--or strong.
Simple is my joy,
A sunny sense-sweetness,
Full of bird-bliss,
Bay-warmth, spray-leap.
Mysteries there are
And miseries beneath it,
But sunk, like wrecks,
Far down in the deep.

MLA

Rice, Cale Young. “Paths.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rice/222/.

Chicago

Rice, Cale Young. “Paths.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rice/222/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Cale Young Rice