Carkeek Poems: Beach Art

For a couple hundred years now
we have been complaining about the mechanized beasts

They are out in force today
crawling above the beach with beautiful terrifying menace
the regular cubes of the containers
lit by the sun, orderly, fulfilling all our dreams of dominance and control
meeting every need with geometric precision

But someone has formed a spiral in the sand
A hymn to organic growth
the path from birth to death
the way we have always done it
from nautilus on up
I don’t know where the power truly lies
I’m betting on the spiral

We have a new resident on the beach today:
a stone cairn, made of rocks heavier than I could lift
probably a group project at low tide
possibly fueled by alcohol
or pagan piety
or aesthetic enthusiasm
or just the joy of building, making, moving, lifting

Now it sits out in the water
a pharos
an island of enchantment
to remain there until another drunken party
or destructive kids
assert their primacy

It’s all right: the rocks don’t care and will endure

There has been a spiral inscribed in spray paint on one of the big railroad-bed boulders
left there years ago and gracefully fading

very recently, possibly last night, someone tagged it with their semi-coherent logo
I liked the pristine spiral better
It has presided over my ceremonies for quite some time now
so I walked by it this morning with some grief
some clench of the heart

but just past it, a profile sketched with casual skill on a sharp rock face
one side human
one side pure beautiful wordless faceless stone facets
two sides to every coin
every line, curved or straight, folding within itself
all the wonders and horrors we can imagine

The white fishing boats
spread out across the horizon
A frequency, a rhythm
monotonous melody

The seagulls float in constantly changing array
notes that won't stay still like those on the page

Some of the music I make
utilizes the even tone row
little spots of black where my fingers can dance
making spritely tunes

But the vast majority of my songs
float like the gulls
form and reform and disappear
Ghostly jigs and reels amidst the winged congregation

Robin crow stream surf:
Never alone

Today I built a pile of pebbles
each one inscribed with a word of the Heart Sutra
a scripture pile
this merging of suchness and suchness
like the hush of the waves meeting me at my eardrums

Royal ease!

SHARIPUTRA
FORM
DOES
NOT
DIFFER
FROM
EMPTINESS

Today
a mandala on the beach
formed of fragments of shell
crab legs
a crow feather

Some consciousness I recognize
at work here
making some spell
or a simple celebration of what is here
and what humans can make of it

with a keen eye
open heart
spirit untroubled by
useless oppressive stories