I Have a Need of Gulls

I have a need of gulls again and their flying Over the foam-white acres of the sea Where the sunrise drifts like a fleet of ships afire, And the dark like eternity. I have a need for the yellow sea oat’s music And the single salty note Curled in the palm of a shell as pale as the sigh In a sandpiper’s throat.

Too long the city has housed me and fed me its fare, Too long I have run with the crowd; I have a need to be free again like the gulls, To bathe my face in the cool white peace of a cloud. I have a need to lie at length on the sands, To unshoulder my burdens out where the seagulls cry, And to all of my heart’s dark questions unanswered Hear the white answers they write in the sky.