"Whale Song" by Aparna Sanyal, Frequent Contributor & Poet of the Week

Whale Song

Aparna Sanyal 

Metrical, sonic beauty, their song; they are 

separated by krill, kelp, and an ocean’s longing. 

Bumps and baleen hold grey and true through

a water’s shimmery deception--

steady hearts sing their need across the traveling

warm-cold-warm currents.  

Unwavering through deceit, their twinned souls 

mate, across fields of deepest obsidian, lit by 

the bioluminescent, strobe-pulsing cheers of 

a million onlookers 

that marvel at the tenderness,

grace and fragility of these lovers, leviathan. 

They’ve swum lifetimes and use this 

divine playground to frolic away harpoon fears

and tears. 

Soon, they will be three. 

Then thus schooled, they will crest 

and dip with swells of loving foam and 

cerulean stipples. 

Around them, the waves will change, 

indigo to jade, then coruscate and break, 

create frothy jargon as they rise,

never losing their collective shape.

Sprays of joyful diamond drops will be their only tell

as they submerge and glide

ever onwards, ever seeking--

more splendent symphonies, more mellifluent 

melodies, 

more coupling by song-washed nights and days. 

They are fluid, gentle-- 

as the moonlit smiles of us, when we meet. 

Passionate--as the glare from our sun-bright trysting. 

Beyond our lifetimes, these giant hearts

will rule and obey the sea.

Poet’s Notes:  A documentary about whales prompted this poem. I was awestruck for the umpteenth time by the sheer grace, beauty, and pure peace of these magnificent creatures and couldn’t resist writing this ode.

Editor’s Note:  What a beautiful, lyrical piece about one of the other self-aware species that share the earth with us--and the largest portion of it, the sea.  I especially like the intra-line rhymes and the gorgeous imagery of the whales mating.