Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire

This week’s poem by former Portland Poet Laureate Martin Steingesser expresses wonderful longing to fully inhabit the moment and, hence, appreciate the beauty that surrounds us wherever we are in Maine.

The Gift

East End Beach, Portland

By Martin Steingesser

Stop awhile, here at water’s edge, this calm, breezeless, sunny Indian summer morning,

the bay ripple-less, except for an occasional cat’s paw ruffling the surface, sunlight playing there, as if, in one

enviable gesture, someone threw a scatter of gems over the water. The gift — just to be here, sunlight

riding the waves, beauty wider than the bottomless blue, maybe only one white note, a passing gull, a sea bell

in the distance. So what longing propels me headlong to unanswerable questions — these old, dog-eared ones,

smooth and opaque as sea glass: WHERE ARE WE GOING? WHO AM I? — smudging the autumn air soon as spoken.

Oh, what, what would it be like behind the eye of the seagull, that puppy running along the shore?  

Dennis Camire can be reached at [email protected]