“They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all”
Whales Weep Not – D.H. Lawrence

Haunting sounds well up from the deeps
as the leviathans sing their dreamtime songs.
The tribesmen of Australia walk across
the outback, the songs about the Creators
leading them from one sacred spot to another.

But what moves the giants of the ocean to sing?
They all sing the same song, and each newborn
learns it. Each year a verse is dropped from the end
while a new one is added to the beginning, constantly
evolving. If only we could understand the song.

Do they sing of the wonders they’ve encountered
while traversing their migratory circle under the
waves? Does the song tell of those lost to the whaler’s
harpoon? Or do they sing of the twelve dolphins
who kept a weakened, birthing mother from drifting

ashore onto the sands of Kihei where she and her
calf would have surely died? Do they praise their
small cousins who romp and frolic and sometimes
act as midwives and nurses to a dying race, helping
perpetuate the greater glory of these majestic singers?

If only we had the language, perhaps we would
better understand that there is a sentience beyond
that which walks the dry lands and only treads
occasionally and always fearfully into the places
the whale calls home. If only we understood the song.

Craig Allen
© June 11, 2010

08/11/2010

Author's Note: Yes, that's D.H. Lawrence at the beginning setting the tone for this poem in a glosa style.

Posted on 11/12/2011
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