All poems and photographs (c) 2025 Joseph H Anderson
Wave Shadow
There I am, sprawled out across the water, stretched by sunlight
my little head keeps appearing against the foam, and then disappearing
Headless, headed, headless, headed
the salt water swirling in among all my layers and patterns and confusions feels good
it drips out of my nostrils and over my beard and down my chest
Wave after wave saying
no
yes
no
yes
no
Composed April 16, 2025
Shadow on Rock
Will this poem leave no mark
Like my shadow on the rock?
The sun will show itself or hide behind a cloud
No matter if I mutter soft or rage in tantrum loud
Well…the shadow’s fading
I might as well get back to my shoreside parading…
…I’m back again!
With bold outline!
Reader, is your existence real?
I doubt mine
Composed March 31, 2025
Self-Portrait
The shadow is as real as
the shadow is as real as
the shadow is as real as the
shadow
shadow
shadow
The unreal is as real as
the unreal is as real as
the unreal is as real as the
unreal
unreal
unreal
The mirror is as real as the reflection
the jet is as real as the contrail
the trace is as real as the thought
the echo is as real as the sound
the dropping is as real as the bird
the worm is as real as the hope
the ebb the flow
the come the go
the hope
the pigeons chasing one another across the rocks
the motorboat drone
the sun on the back of the back of the back
of the writer of the poem of the day of the moment of the unreal of the real
Composed June 30, 2025
Optical Illusion
There in the creek I saw a crow
but no: it was a spot of inky shadow
There in the creek I saw a spot of inky shadow
but no: it was a crow
And now my pen is running out of
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running out of ink
Composed June 3, 2025
Strobe
As I stood under the railroad bank
A train of container cars
consuming all my awareness with their overwhelming crashing
(not waves crashing, not gentle or even furious, just relentless – relentless)
The sun on this hot morning rising behind
flooding the spaces between the rectangles of transported goods,
or ills as the case may be
Strobed me
Flash of insight
dull commerce
blaze of enlightenment
dim desire
spotlight of awareness
dark need
bright
blind
bright
blind
bright
blind
until the train passed
the waves returned
the dualistic fantasy abated
and I was back to the healing
far more true
less confusing
those moderate shadows
Composed July 16, 2025
Triplicate
On a sunny morning like this one
every pebble on the this beach has its own shadow
every crow’s antics are cast beneath it on the ground
the ripples of the water eat the shadows, leaving the duck and the fisherman alone
without shadow or reflection, they achieve unity
water will do that
otherwise we are split
image, shadow, reflection - if the water is still
I always thought stillness would make me whole
But it seems I need a ruffle of breeze,
or a tide,
or a sourceless ripple
Composed August 25, 2025
Weight of Words
Today the beach is shimmering under a weight of words
logorrhea
words hang over everything like this light grey, dark grey, smoky pearly fog
out of which trains roar and foghorns sound
into which crows disappear
the words seem so concrete:
scriptures, memories, associations, monologues and dialogues
but words are vapor
hanging over the Real
sometimes obscuring
sometimes making unbelievable beauty
sometimes withdrawing so we can really see
those stones, those strands of wet and dry algae
that creek muttering in an entirely different language
Composed September 4, 2025