KATE O'NEIL
  • About Kate
  • POEMS FOR CHILDREN
    • Barefoot
    • Gargoyle Guile
    • POEMS FROM 'LET IN THE STARS' >
      • High Achievers
      • Paragliders Bald Hill Lookout
      • Sondry Folk
    • Maximouse
    • The Back of Beyond
    • Thackaringas
    • Sea Sparkle
  • KATE'S COOL POEMS
  • TRUMPETINGS
    • Trump l'oeil
    • Sound the Trump
    • Thoughts of a Very Rattled Sabre
    • The Art of the Heel
    • Bulldusted
    • SHARK ALARM
    • Wall
  • Sydney Poems
    • Lament of the kangaroo gargoyle on the clock tower – Sydney University
    • Tom Ugly's Spirit Talks Back
    • “Giraffe Removals. All Suburbs.” (Sydney billboard)
    • Eternity
    • Cell Door Open
    • Animal Feed Available at Restaurant
    • Happy as Larry
    • Hosts
    • Carnival of the Animals
  • The School Magazine
  • BUZZINGS FROM THE BEES IN MY BONNET
    • On Being Elocuted
    • Poetry and the Role of the Toe in Scansion
    • Some Thoughts on teaching Don Quixote.
    • John Thelwall: “Citizen” John, political activist, atheist reprobate, acquitted felon, poet, Professor of Elocution and speech therapist.
    • On 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'
  • Contact Kate
  • Shop

Sea sparkle

(Noctiluca scintillans, Thirroul Beach, August 2014)


After the rain a dull red tide
muddied the angry sea,
and the sky hung low and grey.
No swimming today.


I moped back up to the house to read
and hours had slipped away
when dad called out to me
that lights were on in the sea.


We walked out in the clear-rinsed dark
and down to watch the waves
breaking there in bright
displays of blue-green light.


It had to be magic. Water like fire
flaring into the dark!
Was it a sea-change?--
a thing so ghostly and strange.


We ran towards the breaking waves
and saw our footprints spark
as if we’d gone to play
along the Milky Way.


I cupped my hands and scooped up stars
then let them fall away
and lightning flashed and played
with every move I made.


I was in the universe,
with stars around my feet,
a giant hurling light
at random in the night.


Galaxies were swirling by
tumbling time and space
to sand-grains in my mind.
I’d left the world behind.
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  • About Kate
  • POEMS FOR CHILDREN
    • Barefoot
    • Gargoyle Guile
    • POEMS FROM 'LET IN THE STARS' >
      • High Achievers
      • Paragliders Bald Hill Lookout
      • Sondry Folk
    • Maximouse
    • The Back of Beyond
    • Thackaringas
    • Sea Sparkle
  • KATE'S COOL POEMS
  • TRUMPETINGS
    • Trump l'oeil
    • Sound the Trump
    • Thoughts of a Very Rattled Sabre
    • The Art of the Heel
    • Bulldusted
    • SHARK ALARM
    • Wall
  • Sydney Poems
    • Lament of the kangaroo gargoyle on the clock tower – Sydney University
    • Tom Ugly's Spirit Talks Back
    • “Giraffe Removals. All Suburbs.” (Sydney billboard)
    • Eternity
    • Cell Door Open
    • Animal Feed Available at Restaurant
    • Happy as Larry
    • Hosts
    • Carnival of the Animals
  • The School Magazine
  • BUZZINGS FROM THE BEES IN MY BONNET
    • On Being Elocuted
    • Poetry and the Role of the Toe in Scansion
    • Some Thoughts on teaching Don Quixote.
    • John Thelwall: “Citizen” John, political activist, atheist reprobate, acquitted felon, poet, Professor of Elocution and speech therapist.
    • On 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'
  • Contact Kate
  • Shop