Elaine Elizabeth Belz
ZEN CADENZA

what music
does the sea transmit across its channels
pulling you out wave upon wave
to crash a wave against some distant coast?

the noise of sea gulls cyclically
builds crests disintegrates
rebuilds

and the silence
intones your mother tongue.

there is no language
without the sea, no music
without oceans

steadily these fitful waves
emerge from the placid horizon