Rooms by the Sea, by Elina Petrova

Rooms by the Sea, by Edward Hopper (USA) 1951

Rooms by the Sea
  
When many dreams that mattered are late,
let’s keep it simple — a loaf of crispy bread,
small jobs to fuel the tank, long road trips
without destinations. Landscapes will lead from lost
sensations of dried mesas and the prairie grass
to hairpin turns, heart-mending windy vistas,
limestone tunnels that will rush to open
the higher views: sun-sprinkled birches,
the crystal-blue of the inverted sky in pallid tarns.
 
There will be pines, quartz-spangled boulders
with lichen tracery, the rarified air,
and then descent by driving on the edge.
Red-glossed diners will suffice at midnight,
a highway past salines will widen
into the sun white-wash of bridges over bays
preceding larger waters — the massive
breathing haze with hoots of distant ships.
Rooms by the sea ... The ocean will suffice
when many dreams that mattered will cease.

Elina Petrova

Until 2007 Elina lived in Ukraine and worked in engineering management. Elina published one poetry book in Russian and two poetry books in English: Aching Miracle (2015) and Desert Candles (2019). Elina’s poems have appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Texas Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Porter House Review, Southwestern American Literature, Texas Poetry Calendars, FreeFall (Canada), Ocotillo Review, Melancholy Hyperbole, Poetry of the American Southwest series and many other anthologies. A frequent Pushcart Prize nominee, Elina was a finalist for the post of Houston Poet Laureate in 2015 and Austin International Poetry Fest's Featured Poet in 2019. She received second place honours in the 2020 national contest of Public Poetry.