{"id":94163,"date":"2016-02-04T18:31:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T23:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=94163"},"modified":"2016-02-04T18:51:54","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T23:51:54","slug":"february-pemaquid-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/04\/february-pemaquid-point\/","title":{"rendered":"February: Pemaquid Point"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A postcard of Pemaquid Point, ca. 1930\u201345.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ira Sadoff\u2019s poem \u201cFebruary: Pemaquid Point\u201d appeared in our Winter\u2013Spring 1980<\/a> issue. His most recent collection is\u00a0<\/em>True Faith<\/a>\u00a0(2012).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The lighthouse as an image
of loneliness has its limits.<\/p>\n

For as we stand on the shore
of this ocean, crusted snow<\/p>\n

On the hills and the grass dispersed
beneath it, that tower<\/p>\n

seems a place where people gather
some vision themselves: the marriage<\/p>\n

of rock to water, of wave to snail
washed up on shore. We\u2019re small,<\/p>\n

and waving to the lobster boat\u2014
which could be miles away of close<\/p>\n

enough to raise our voices to\u2014makes
us wish our journeys took us further,<\/p>\n

past witness, to a scene, perhaps,
where we belonged. A man in blue<\/p>\n

pulls up his net, tiny fish
swim free from it. And the man<\/p>\n

pulling anchor, whose strength
pulls him further from the shore,<\/p>\n

pays tribute to our rootlessness.
As he shouts to start the engine up,<\/p>\n

To take his course, he leaves us
In the distance, the repeated ritual<\/p>\n

Of his wake. And like the water
Stirred against the lighthouse wall,<\/p>\n

Breaking up, wave after wave, we
Forget ourselves. Learn our place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ira Sadoff\u2019s poem \u201cFebruary: Pemaquid Point\u201d appeared in our Winter\u2013Spring 1980 issue. 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