Thursday, September 10, 2020

The Monk by the Sea (Caspar David Friedrich), Sonnet #529















The rock shelf doesn’t hold the sea
In place, thought the monk, rather say,
Water will accept a boundary
Because that is the given way.
He has learned little all these years;
How to eat, walk, but not to think,
But in the vanquishing of fears —
Little stones thrown in the sea sink.
He fears most the fog’s unwinding,
Like cloth from a bolt, the blinding,
When the sun’s lost sight of his eyes.
Then there's no telling fog from self.
He’s moveless till the wind rises.
A step might send him off the shelf.

My book of the first 200 of these sonnets is now available for purchase. Click here: