the Black Sea coast road is knotted with bends
the car doing hairpins sun shining on our backs
hours it takes to drive this ancient coast
where Amazons once lived in the days
when the sea was a lake
long ago there was no Black Sea
instead a freshwater lake in that basin
filled by the melt of ice age glaciers
then came the long drought and Lake
Euxine evaporated
later the earth broke and the oceanic
spill began tearing the narrow lands
each end of the Sea of Marmara
where cattle crossed at the Bosphoros
and so came the great flood
the breaking of earth's waters
was it Deukalion and Pyrrah
or Noah and Naamah and their
many animals riding the rising waters
from history into myth?
Beautiful, beautiful language, Susan, to create this picture and all its background.
ReplyDeleteOr, to be more precise, beautiful use of language.
DeleteI love these poems. I'm familiar with the historical and mythic references but it's great to read literary work addressing geographies and stories that were known to my grandmother's family of sea merchants in this area, sailing their ship between France and the Ukraine. And I like the wave like rhythms, particularly in the last stanza.
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your comments. Efi I was wondering where your ancestors came from. I love this coast which I have travelled just once and would go back at the drop of a hat. Here's hoping I get to some day.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see it one day too.
ReplyDelete