- Introduction
- "As Tiny Sea-Birds…"
- Ode on 30th Street Station
- Meditation from the Steps of the Art Museum
- Challenge
- Written on the Rocks, Vinal Haven, ME
- Meeting an Old Friend on the Wissahickon
- Orchestrations Walking on Delancey Street
- "The Seeing Fails…"
- An Old Man's Travelogue
- Winter Sonnet (Odd)
- Lullaby for a Cat
- Winter Song
- Tigger at the Window
- Evening Blues for Solo Guitar
- Foundling Cat
- Delancey Sreet at Noon
- Lisa Happy
- Sonnet from Exile
- Evening Encounter
- Pecking Order
- Mannequins in Nan Duskin's Window
"As Tiny Sea-Birds"
As tiny sea-birds running from the sound
The tide full-throated shouts before its break
Seek sanctuary lest the wave should take
Them unawares and pull them to be drowned:
So men, when nations break, seek higher ground
In tried and ancient ways; of customs make
Life jackets lest they flounder in the wake
And wash of history's unending round.
What foolishness is this? No bird would dive
For shelter in the wave; no bird so blind
But sees the water's beckoning for cheat.
Yet, reason notwithstanding, men still thrive
On dreams of old salvation, and so bind,
By self-made chains, themselves to self-defeat.
All work on these pages copyright © by Robert
A. Seeley
All rights reserved
Essays and
Thoughts • Essays
on War • Selected Poems
givewings.com • Discover
Germantown
Surviving the Future • About
the Author