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| Watercolor 'Fun in the Surf' by Anne Barash Breitstein |
Graham Everett
Dad is never first in, yet
swims out the furthest. The teens
scan the sand for deliverance
staring out across the water.
Mom floats on her back
a few stolen minutes,
dreaming. Water-wings
clutch the arms of the youngest
frolicking in the tide's change.
Sunlight lessens. Summer
flowers wild on eroded dunes.
The author of today's poem - Graham Everett - poet, professor at Stony Brook, and an interim director of the Poetry Center there, founder and publisher of Street Magazine and Street Press, wrote about the inspirations in the local scenes from his early years on: "I continue to mine these spots, the ground under our feet, treading these neighborhood sidewalks, the lost paths of island's morained hills, as best as I can." We found the following passage particularly touching: "How on foggy nights the old houses dream themselves filled again with light and laughter..."
'Families at the Shore' by Graham Everett from the 1986 'Long Island Poets' collection by The Permanent Press in Sag Harbor. Reprinted with publisher's permission.
'Long Island Poets' book can be purchased from The Permanent Press.
