{"id":13187,"date":"2024-06-03T20:12:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T20:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=13187"},"modified":"2024-08-08T20:02:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T20:02:59","slug":"an-ocean-in-the-harpoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=13187","title":{"rendered":"STEERING FROM THE HARPOON"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feels like the right way to kick off the week, return to editing and revising the new poems and my novel.\u00a0 I’ve been preoccupied with music and the recording process. Life is a balancing act, isn’t it.<\/p>\n

This one is inspired by the ocean of course. I tend to take it for granted and living in East Van fools me into forgetting that it’s just beyond those buildings across the street. Conceived on the Atlantic and raised by the Pacific, I am steeped in its depths.<\/p>\n

STEERING FROM THE HARPOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scattered as if a thundercloud
\nof savage Eden roses,
\nexquisitely sultry, she draws
\nadmiration from reptilian denizens.<\/p>\n

She stares into shark eyes,
\ntapetum lucidum gleaming,
\nuntil their fins turn yellow
\nand their jaws relax,<\/p>\n

while a guttural engine drives her
\nto swim in circles, seeking
\na channel free of nets and barbs,
\na channel red enough to lead her home.<\/p>\n

Aquatic chatterati discuss
\nthe metamorphosis from scrub to siren,
\nher voice, the colour of salt,
\nas beguiling as a ship on the horizon,<\/p>\n

its windows reeking of hell,
\na colossal compass within,
\nvast enough to claim
\nthe hemisphere\u2019s islands of flesh.<\/p>\n

Instinctively she steers away,
\na creature of the depths,
\nswept along towards the time to come,
\nits heady essence, flames of tide,
\nurban lighthouses guiding her return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Feels like the right way to kick off the week, return to editing and revising the new poems and my novel.\u00a0 I’ve been preoccupied with music and the recording process. Life is a balancing act, isn’t it. This one is inspired by the ocean of course. I tend to take it for granted and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13187"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13187"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13403,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13187\/revisions\/13403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}