​Edge of Time, by Denise Pendleton

Beach Walkin', by Shelley Breton (USA) 2024. Click on image for artist site.

​Edge of Time
 
I come here to come once more 
to the edge of things, to imagine  
what might arrive in the leaving and return
of ocean’s cold surprise against my feet 
on the edge of blue. I study that line, 
walk a long time on this shore as the waves 
with their questions advance and recede. 
My body at their side can’t help but answer, 
edging in to catch the waves at their peak.
Their white insides curling above my head,
I dive wholly into their open face.
 
I’ve seen those who have gone too far out 
flirting with the edge of tide’s time.
The lifeguard whistle blows to say come back,
come back, before it’s too late.  All of us 
on edge, on shore, watching, waiting.  Our gaze 
lingers to see white sails passing further out  
on the horizon, the emptiness stretching,
the waves advancing from the edge of time.

Denise Pendleton

Denise Pendleton lives in mid coast Maine having returned, despite intentions otherwise,  to the town where she was born and raised. She is retired from a career of promoting reading and writing which often dovetailed with the arts and humanities.  Under her leadership, Picturing America, a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, was integrated into the classrooms of hundreds of rural early childhood educators, giving them a view of history through the visual arts.  Pendleton holds an MFA in Poetry from Washington University; her poems have appeared in dozens of publications.