This poem is satisfying from beginning to end. It contains an appealing mix of poignancy and subtle humor, and I like the way Susan Berlin lets us in on her sense of who she is and what she might want and need. The wonderful lines, phrases, and metaphors are contained in a strong and beautiful frame. It was published in the Atlanta Review, Poetry 2015, Fall/Winter Edition.

– Barry Hellman
Cape Cod Poetry Group
 

Vanishing Point at the Inlet

I park beneath the only tree, a scarred sycamore
with knuckled limbs stretching toward
the water where inlet opens to ocean.

This is my summer office. Here, no traffic
but grackles and crows. A decent breeze.
An old boat that bobbles beyond the sea grass.

Every so often, another curious tourist
noses his car into this half-hidden cove,
pops out, takes a picture and departs.

And every afternoon I sit, windows down,
reading a book and, between chapters, contemplate
the shingle fixed with one rusty nail to the tree’s trunk.
I feel an affinity — both sign and me
weathered to anonymity.

Who came to this unnamed spit of land, hammer
in hand, to nail the shingle there (or did they use a rock)?
What message to convey? No trespassing? Will you marry me?
How many storms before the words washed away?

And who am I – years without a tongue – to be the one
to give it voice? Each day of summer I’ve wondered: why
me, why did I happen to find this particular tree with its
blank sign begging for something to profess?

I grab my permanent marker, get out of the car
and, in firm strokes, print the word:

                                                     Yes.

Susan Berlin’s poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly, Asheville Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Georgetown Review, Harvard Review, Iodine Poetry Review, Mudfish, Naugatuck River Review, Oberon and Ploughshares, among many others.

A multiple Pushcart Prize nominee and two-time Finalist for the National Poetry Series, Susan was awarded 1st Prize in the Galway Kinnell Poetry Contest and has received an International Publication Prize and an International Merit Award from the Atlanta Review.

Susan lives in Yarmouth Port, MA.

She featured at the Cape Cod Poetry Group’s September, 2014 Poetry & Music event at the Brewster Ladies’ Library.

Poet’s Comment:

One summer day, I drove around, looking for a tourist-free spot where I could read some books undistracted by the phone, the internet and/or my two barking dogs.

Not far from where I live, I discovered a nameless cove that felt private and perfect, with one tree that offered enough shade for me to receive the breeze and enough light to read until sundown.

What intrigued me, though, was a weathered shingle nailed to that tree, with no message on it, which I stared at every day, between chapters.

On summer’s last afternoon, I understood what it was: a sign. But for whom, and of what? Thus, the poem.

— Susan Berlin