I have two poems in Boston University’s magazine Clarion, issue 17, Summer 2014, “Broad and Washington” and “Ocean Swimming,” the final poem in my unpublished book Last One Out. The issue also features an interview with Michael Longley and poems by Mason Hayes, Karen English, and others. Click here to visit and view some of the contents free online.

It’s still summer, so here’s “Ocean Swimming.”

Ocean Swimming

I float for years, it seems, toes out.
Small planes drone down the coast

To tow out ads for bars and bands and beer
As proud sea birds screech loud and strut

The black breakwaters that mark my circuit
To one jetty and then back to the first.

I roll into the cold, control
What I can in the wrestled element,

Appeal against a stronger surge,
Correct my forward course each stroke

To make a simple way that goes
Away as quickly as my wake,

The long unwon struggle to stay afloat,
Small pulse of salt in endless salt.