Chappy Shadow Walk

I took a stroll this morning, before the sun would shine,

down Cape Pogue Ave to Chappy Road, and met a good friend of mine.

Across Dike Bridge and to the beach, we stopped a while to rest,

and each time I turned to look for him, he was always to the west.

We walked along in silence, but I had a lot to say,

past Poucha Pond along the shore until we reached Katama Bay.

Sea Breeze

Alas! the flesh is sad; the books I’ve read already —

O to run away! To flee! I feel with birds their giddy

Flights between unknowns: sea-foams and skies!

And nothing, not old gardens mirrored in bright eyes,

Can now hold back this heart — o sea-drenched nights!

Nor, on this empty paper, lamp-light’s

Desert clarity, whose whiteness keeps it undefiled;

The Quahaug Seeker By Adam Moore

Sengekontacket rippling gray

Waters had beckoned me to lay

My rusty basket rake upon

The sandy bottom of the pond.

I grasped, as did I deeper wade,

A rope with braided fibers frayed,

And with it tethered bushel wire,

Afloat in rubber tube from tire.

To quahaugs rake, to harvest reap,

Late Summer Luncheon

Editor’s Note: Last fall Marlee Fox, a senior in high school, was mulling over her creative writing assignment. It was a cold, blustery day in Annapolis, Md. where she lives and her thoughts turned to Martha’s Vineyard. For several years now her family has been visiting the Island for two weeks each summer.

She wanted to capture, “that feeling you get in your stomach when it’s summer for the first time,” she said.

Juniper

juniperus communis

called jenever by the Dutch

green and young, female seed cone

a fleshy berry used in gin

another life when you mature

piney and resinous

your berries beautiful blue

for seasoning, aromatherapy, medicine

native tribes chewed you to ward off hunger

your seeds become beads

Navajo necklaces for protection

I cut boughs from your strong trunk

like the ancients I bring you inside

Stand here and there, old Vineyard homes,

All wrapped in deep content.

— Emma Mayhew Whiting

They’re painting all the houses white in Edgartown,

capping flat pickets to fences around resplendent lawns,

cut on a diagonal. The parade is just around the corner.

Sit at the spinning wheel in the keeping room, scrimshaw

on the mantel. The crane swings in the high fireplace

and the streets are filled with shouts for

During the last presidential campaign, the poet Naomi Shihab Nye had the daunting task of introducing Caroline Kennedy at an Obama campaign event in San Antonio, Texas. The honor was made particularly formidable because Ms. Kennedy’s plane had been significantly delayed.

Irene

No turbines in the Sound yet

wind makes its presence

felt the old-fashioned way

my old Vic of a house

rocks and sways with gusts

blowouts of freed-up energy

Plants take up residence in

the safety of inside next to

hammock, porch chairs and grill

tables fend for themselves

bushes and shrubs wear Wilt-Proof

In Memory of Julia

Like leaves of fall, shells change in shape,

managing their change of fate.

Parts and pieces, seaweed strewn,

parade of beauty, stop to swoon.

Reeds of grass, like tufts of hair,

climbing toward the well-worn stair.

Tidal swim, when moon is full,

arms outstretched to catch the pull.

From piers we leap into the chop,

and beg this summer not stop.

Nine Eleven: 10 Years Later

Heavy skies drop rain

daily in intermittent waves

this old summer cottage

of ours harbors air eddies

demands the wood stove

current-sucking heater coils

extra layers, sweaters, wool

socks; trees wave remnants

of their storm-seared leaves.

Potted foliage sags its greenery

fallen petals stain the porch floor