Songs from the Kayak

silently now the kayak nudges between stars

Photo: © David Whyte

I

The kayak
slips through a delicate channel
between islands

this slight shape
cutting deep green

for ten thousand years
the skin of
northern seals
nosing between ice floes

now the russet glow
or orange fiberglass
translucent

floating at the edge
of evening

until dark comes
and the paddle reaches
in the deep night
and dips between the Pleiades

silently now
the kayak
nudges between stars.

---

II

This freedom
as the kayak nuzzles through kelp!

In the sea
for each paddle stirring the waters
there are the tones of color
and for the lifting bow
there is the horizon
and shades of purple
in the islands to the west
and the short slapping waves
splash colors
as the thin skin
leaps forward

moving
intently
a sense of journey
through kelp
spread low on the ocean rim.

---

III

Balanced in the water
this cradle of new journeys
the kayak
allows me to fish
peering down
to other worlds
where creatures breathe
the dark water

I lean over in the warm night

and rock on the sleeping chest
of the Georgia Strait
careful not to go too far
and wake the giant
whose limbs stretch liquid
in the full moon
reflecting from fiords
onto steep cliffs

no journeys tonight
no wisdom
one place with a rod and line
and the fish will leap in my net!