An Ocean Away

An ocean divides us. Yet each particle transfers its energy to the next, thereby completing vast connections. An Ocean Away is concerned with these issues of alienation and intimacy. It attempts to reconcile new experience with the task of making one's home in the world. An Ocean Away draws as much upon the apparent facts of family origins and political history as it does upon the no less real facts of memory and fantasy.

The author's formative years in New England and his travels in South America and Asia serve as the backdrop for these poems.

Belly to tile, arms outstretched and listening

to the swallowed clink of a lawnmower,

I sifted through the bottom layers:

one bandaid; one lost contact lens; one jelly bracelet (niece's)

which might have been from last week

or three summers back.

But nothing seemed to fit just right.

Until I saw your shadow hovering in the shallow end-

my desire for you taking shape again.

That-and the end of my air-

brought me back to you.

-From "At the Bottom"

"Engaging, naturally crafted."

-Kenneth Lincoln, author of The Good Red Road; Professor of English, UCLA.