"The Idea of Order at Key West" (and some shameless spousal promotion)

For she was the maker of the song she sang.
The ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea
Was merely a place by which she walked to sing.
Whose spirit is this? we said, because we knew
It was the spirit that we sought and knew
That we should ask this often as she sang.
If it was only the dark voice of the sea
That rose, or even colored by many waves;
If it was only the outer voice of sky
And cloud, of the sunken coral water-walled,
However clear, it would have been deep air,
The heaving speech of air, a summer sound
Repeated in a summer without end
And sound alone. But it was more than that,
More even than her voice, and ours, among
The meaningless plungings of water and the wind,
Theatrical distances, bronze shadows heaped
On high horizons, mountainous atmospheres
Of sky and sea.

(Full text of the poem here.)

Taken at Galveston, Texas, Summer 2009. Image by the Mrs.; click to enlarge. Shill alert: More of her work here; Facebook page here. Send her some love (and some work . . . her slogan is, "Has lens; will travel.")