"Say the Name, Ocracoke"

Ocracoke Harbor: Silver Lake

Say the Name, Ocracoke

I say the name, Ocracoke,
let it click at the back of my tongue,
glide gently past my lips,
almost puckering if for a kiss
as it leaves me and my mountain top home

winging eastward toward Pamlico Sound
with its batik sky,
dissolving its vowels and syllables
into aqua, turquoise or teal
as it slips into Silver Lake.

Will soon eagerly lean against ferry rail,
say the name, Ocracoke,
salt spray and sun's warm slant
welcoming me as we squeeze
through The Ditch

into beckoning days charmingly simple:
coffee slowly sipped Down Creek,
hammock naps at Springer's Point
and if we are really lucky,
perhaps a pirate's wail adrift a foggy morn
over Teach's Hole.

by Margaret Bednar, April 20, 2018


This is linked with "Imaginary Garden of Real Toads - Wordy Thursday (Fri) with Wild Woman - Say the Names of the Places you Love" a tribute to Canadian poet Al Purdy and perhaps his most famous poem "Say the Names".

and NaPoWriMo 2018.