December Poem: What If the Sea Told Us

As the December nights grow longer, an emerging lesbian poet writes about the spirituality of darkness in the Poem of the Month at Writers at Work.

“What If the Sea Told Us” by Audrey Lockwood begins:

What if the sea told us
look to the eastern sky?
Look up at the moon through
a spider’s web spread delicately
backed by blackest night and
golden light?


What if we listened to its darkness?
Danced to its backlit spider’s moonlight?
What then would we feel?
Would we be shocked at the knowledge
of distant orange so slight? Awakened
the gentle, touched by the anvil
sheltered by light? ...

Audrey Lockwood (photo by Jennifer Abod)

Click here to read the whole poem at Writers At Work, a respected literary website and creative writing center in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1997 by Terry Wolverton, author of Stealing Angel and Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Women's Building.

Lockwood will also participate in a poetry reading tonight (Dec. 6) at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center by members of the My Life is Poetry autobiographical poetry workshop. Steven Reigns teaches the workshop to help LGBTQ seniors find their voices and reclaim their pasts through poetry.

Full disclosure: I love this poem and I love Audrey, who happens to be my life partner. I’m so proud of her poetry successes!