Greater than stars or suns,
Bounding O soul thou journeyest forth;
What love than thine and ours could wider amplify?
What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours O soul?
--Walt Whitman
One love, true sentiment
the reed, dampened,
and a dolce affair
though a ship direct our course
over grey and ire.
The bridge of time, our port
and exploring, we wind our hearts
to one life.
Singing, I shall find one note
as the sail hums.
Emily Isaacson
The delicate moment when a new-born’s cry
crossed the threshold, a minuet:
I was seated, and my purpose sealed,
with joy I marry and am brought near.
The circular purpose of a world
and the stormy islands, unchartered;
a mariner’s compass
to guide our eyes.
Emily Isaacson
My teapot,
countless pouring and clear diadem,
with invisible planets
of color
in glass solar systems:
They cross overhead, their haloes,
true sons.
And the passengers sit
at the backgammon table,
in shaded summer linen,
a game with numerous endings,
silhouetting the realm of chance
and fate
;the sailors, resonant, lithe.
Emily Isaacson