17 January 2021

By Philip Kuepper

From a distance the rowers’ arms
flashed like blades in the sunlight,
blades, engaged, blades blinding,
consumed by motion.
They, and the water,
a surface of coruscating light,
were fire on fire,
the bladelike arms, flames,
the water’s waves, flames,
the rowers, enclosed in motion,
become almost a blur.
They were arms come
in peace (not always the case,
which history has made clear)
peace without.  Within
the rowers there was
the burning intensity of being
one with the moment.

(10 October 2020)