Hi Paul:

About 12 years ago, I was walking on the shore at Ocean Grove early in the morning, when I saw something in the surf nearby that gave me an insight into my work. Here is “Whirl of Hunger,” from my 2008 poetry collection, Father of Water.

Best wishes,
Charles Pierre

The Great Falls. Paterson, New Jersey. By Paul Goldfinger c. 2013. ©  Click to seek “the shapes that sustain” the  poet.

Whirl of Hunger

By Charles Pierre

Just as a gull dips its wing

to a sudden rush of wind

and pivots on the whitecap,

extending its open beak to some

bit of the sea’s sustenance,

so I hover within this poem,

balanced only on a salt gust,

turning in a whirl of hunger,

as I stretch to the wave-tip

for the shapes that sustain me.

BILL FRISELL   “The Shadow of Your Smile”