from a book of poetry
The Struck Leviathan
by John Bennett, 1970
POEMS ON MOBY DICK
______________________
Under soft sunlight
on the glinting tides
the gentle sea beasts roll
in love or loving play.
Those children of salt time ---
those bulls whose greatly muscled sex
would cause the Bull to stare,
those cows whose filling wombs make birth
the absolute of love,
those calves whose innocence hurls them
through tides of hugest joy ---
those tons of flesh are gentle as the kiss
that other lovers give.
The halcyon sea and its great beasts are one:
God's holy purpose, single, multiform,
defines a joyous image of itself.
[Ishmael is named from the
word "go" at the opening page of
Moby Dick. Melville's first sentence
in the epic novel is
"Call me Ishmael" ]
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