Spring Cranes
Spring Cranes
With gentle floating feet
And great wide wings
The cranes climb the air.
In spring they dance in courtship
and turn and skim with wild abandon.
Over the sandy water flats.
How ethereal it is to fly.
Playfully we imitate
The sensuous swaying and leaning
Of the courting cranes.
We can dance and sway in happiness.
But we need a floatplane to skim and fly.
- Louise Parsons
The Soul of a Seaplane
You said to trace what you see
in your mind, but the third
dimension gets in my way. Where
to put the wing? The prop is askew
the pontoons more like boots
and the fuselage is thin.
I cannot draw the plane,
let alone the turning away,
the right wing lenthening
as the plane banks left.
I cannot draw the take-off
or the landing. But I can
feel the tremble of cockpit trim
in the wind, feel the pull
of the rudder as the plane shudders
to gain speed and altitude.
I understand the engine's loud
insistent howl and the high-pitched
whining hiss.
I believe the seaplane has a soul
not unlike my own. A will, a want
a need to ascend, to transcend
and float high above the chaos.
- Jane Culliton
Sea Facts
It is known sea food
Puts you in sea mood
It is known the sea floor
Extends to a sea shore
These are common sea facts
Like when sea waves are calm and free
Crashing to the shore endlessly attracts
Everyone to take of in jest and flee
See not and hear not, there is no evil
Above and below sea level
Most seaports
Have a seaside resort
And most seafronts
Have a sea restaurant
But many rooms with a sea view
Are yet to see a sea rescue
Or watch a sea adventure
With any or at least one sea creature
Like a sea mammal
Or a sea animal
These are common sea facts
The sea has such beauty to attract
With sea shells
Woven from sea spells
To treasured sea beds
And to cherubic sea birds
You need seamanship
To take a sea ship on a trip
Or fly a seaplane
As a sea captain
There have been sea battles and sea bandits
The sea is a venue people love to use to meet
There have been sea monsters and seaquakes
Believe you me some of these myths are not fake
And now I have given you a little sea taste
I urge you not to let these sea facts go to waste
These are common sea facts
On your knowledge they most have made an impact!
Sylvia Chid
In my heaven
In my heaven there are only seaplanes,
transient lovers of two worlds, traitors
to the ground. Busting through clouds, free of reins,
silver winged fish wearing clumsy waders.
Flying high curves over islands below--
the western reaches of well-forested dreams.
Northward with passion, desires in tow,
unaware that all is not what it seems.
In my heaven, even the possums fly.
Once earth-bound, cumbersome, king of all road-kill,
Now they swing through the air by and by,
Tails cling to limbs, a pendulous thrill.
Here, illusions drop like sets of keys,
Possums and seaplanes crash into trees.
- Jane Culliton
In Princess Louisa Inlet
Chatterbox Falls, wide as a house,
wakes me up, louder than AM news.
I hear you in the engine room.
All my life you got up early, left
before we woke. Off to the gravel pit
in your pale yellow pick-up. Nightfall,
I'd clean your shoes. Lathered up the waxy smell
of saddle soap that bit clear into stitching.
We decided late last evening,
to sell your house, buy a seaplane
and an island shack, raise
chickens, fish the evening tide.
Full of practicalities, your wife piped
in, but we went on, you telling of tricks:
flying loops under Deception Pass bridge,
chasing cattle, rubber wheels grazing hide.
I open the forward hatch,
cozy back into bag, listen
as you tinker.
Remember all that talk?
Lit up by candles and Scotch.
- Jane Culliton