Unchangingly Changing
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The sea, though always kind and cruel, both,
Is never kind or cruel, but the sea.
At once both kind and cruel, not, its oath
Will be, “Be kind and cruel”. The degree
Of its intensity, severe or kind,
Is what it pledges. Generosity
And savagery seas deal out as if blind
Like justice. Waves’ and depths’ ferocity
Are balanced by largesse allowing keels
To cross the distances of hope and lift
Seas’ wealth. The oceans do not let appeals
Decide between catastrophe or gift.
The cruel-kind expanses measured by
Wide maps imply the seas are kind and sly.
~ Phillip Whidden