‘Marooned’

Suwan Choi is an artist inspired by the beauty of insects. Through vibrant, detailed work, she captured the intricate patterns and forms of these creatures, aiming to raise appreciation for their role in nature.

Marooned 

The billows gleamed with reflected light

Which clear as day illumined the silent night,

No sound, no murmur to my ears there came,

Save where the surface rippled

as I swam. --Ovid; Heroides XVIII 

Because you're not at home, 

Because you carry a carapace like a

sea-turtle Leaving another house behind 

To mark a lost legendary childhood,

The long contemplations 

On cold winter starry nights. 

Weren't born then either, 

Before you watched yourself trip 

On a black-ice mirror, empty of hindsight

As the billows gleamed with reflected light. 

Because you're not here, 

Your arrival is a confrontation 

With unfocused preconceptions-- 

Impenetrable in the presence 

Of silence, as a gust of icy air 

Extinguishes the candlelight 

And shatters the dormer windows 

Invoking a wind from the sea 

Marooned within timeless moonlight

Which clear as day illumines the silent night. 

The current flows between the dark

Icy banks of a sheltered cove-- 

A shadow dream floats in memory,

The spindrift of scrimshanders 

With their nameless relics stacked 

In secret cloisters bereft of that new haven

Read in syllables, by godparents, underwater

Strangers you'll never meet again-- 

Though the lingering taste of salt must remain,

No sound, no murmur to your ears there came.

And now, warmed by mulled cider, 

You ship your oars and drift backwards

Into the fading past, your personal haul

Of folklore, clambering into an exiled 

Driftwood landscape, tidal swells over-washing

The memory of a wartime telegram-- 

Submerged decks in heavy seas, 

In the ancient passage of crossing the line,

Lost in a sudden exhalation, your torn diaphragm--

Save where the surface rippled as you swam.

Edward Baranosky has painted seascapes since he was seven years old. His focus on marine- scapes, draws him back to visit his native home in the American east coast, for inspiration from the North Atlantic. His work emphasizes the present - in the ever-changing moments of water. As a poet-artist he crosses the channels and pathways between the visual and the textual. He continues to exhibit in the United States and Canada. At 78 he is still emerging. Website: https://painterpoet.weebly.com Education: BFA 1969, Rhode Island School of Design, Major in Painting.