White Sands by Arthur Sze

White Sands

by Arthur Sze

--Walking along a ridge of white sand--

it's cooler below the surface--

we stop and, gazing at the expanse

of dunes to the west,

watch a yellow yolk of sun drop to the mountains--

an hour earlier, we rolled down a dune,

white sand flecked your eyelids and hair--

a claret cup cactus blooms,

and soaptree yuccas

move as a dune moves--

so many years later, on a coast, waves rolling to shore,

wave after wave,

I see how our lives have unfolded,

a sheen of

wave after whitening wave--

and we are stepping barefoot,

rolling down a dune, white flecks on our lips,

on our eyelids: we are lying in a warm dune

as a full moon

lifts against an ocean of sky--

This beautiful poem is from Arthur Sze's book, Sight Lines, published by Copper Canyon Press in 2019.

I love how there are people in this poem, starting with the first word, but it seems to be very much a poem that describes a natural scene. It does so really well, of course--those first four stanzas paint a vivid picture. But the last four stanzas make this poem very much about the "we" without losing the nature it started with.

I know you don't need me to tell you what a wonderful line this is:  watch a yellow yolk of sun drop to the mountains.

Or how great the word play, visual details, and sounds are in this entire stanza:

a claret cup cactus blooms,

                            and soaptree yuccas

                                                           move as a dune moves--

(That is a soaptree in the photo above.)

The poem starts in a desert and moves to the ocean, while keeping the desert in its description. We are told that desert scene is from years before. We don't know how young the couple was then, but they were young enough (or at least fit enough) to roll down dunes.

The speaker likens their life together as "a sheen of/wave after whitening wave." I don't take this as a negative--it is life. Things come at us and we get over them or go through them, and we get to the other side of the wave . . . and then there's another. Doing it together is a positive, and the speaker so it this way as well.

He is transported back to when the "we" rolled down a dune. The white flecks of sand are repeated. Only now, it is not sunset--that gorgeous yellow yolk of sun--but a full moon. And that celestial being is not dropping behind mountains, but lifting itself up in the sky, which is described as an ocean of sky.

This beautiful love poem is cloaked in nature imagery like a hug. But it is very specific--this is an older couple ("older" being relative) that have been through a lot together. This would be a perfect poem to read at an anniversary party, yes?

The rest of Sze's book is just as lovely. You can purchase this book, and more of Sze's books, at Copper Canyon by clicking here. Learn more about the claret cup cactus here and the soaptree yucca here.

Those last two links go to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and if you are wondering who Lady Bird Johnson was, or if you know her but don't understand why a former First Lady is so connected to wildflowers, click here.