Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest

Northern California Where You Still Live
by Liza Porter

Nineteenth Contest
SECOND Place

For E.D. Lavis 1953-2005

Alone in the dark on the wooden deck 
facing west, it’s silent except for a few cars 
flying by on a road in the distance.

The Jeffers' book to my left holds your 
favorite poems of the Pacific, granite 
rock, salt, the day moon. Yesterday

we drove to the coast, spoke of old 
times, dark and light, cried 
when tears were due. You are not gone

but still live in the sea that speaks 
its blue morning tides, its secret sorrows, its 
whispers of fine mist and light.

We cannot touch you in the way we’ve 
always taken for granted, but our fingers will 
spread and reach to the hills between here

and there where you still sing in your 
true voice, your a cappella song 
needs no accompaniment. You are

ocean now. The waves of yesterday
rock my feet as we walk and gaze 
at shimmering water and see

Point Reyes off in the distance, 
that dark peninsula showing itself
only a few times in winter and only

under clear skies. Soon your ashes will fly
above a warmer ocean, and we
will hear your voice in the tide that

flows out and in from the shore 
and back out to sea, over and
over and over, forever.