The Sea of Traherne

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Marly Youmans

You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins.
—Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditation

1.
Dawn

All through his body is a joyful pulse
That says his love's more wide and canyon-deep
Than anyone can tell—the morning dew
Increases him, and he wraps round the Earth.

2.
Noon & Night

Inside his skull, the innocence of sharks
Disperses fins of rainbow, ruby, pearl;
Within the heart's a beat unspeakable,
Though peaceful, tethered to a coral branch.

3.
At all Times, in all Places

He's sportive in eternal founts of time
Where all of past and future surge as one,
Where trooping waves dance up a shingle beach,
Laughing and tossing bright confetti wealth
Of burnished glass and conch and weed to shore
In tide that's full yet always coming in.

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