Thalassa

Dorian Brooks wrote the two poems “Thalassa” and “Poetry Editor” in memory of her friend and fellow poet Mary Rice, who died in 2011. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Mary Rice was an essayist and videographer as well as a poet; her poems, articles, and reviews were published in several magazines, including Ms. and Sojourner.  A feminist and proud graduate of all-women Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, USA, she also held a master's degree in art history from Boston University.  She was an editor of the feminist magazine Second Wave, and later, poetry editor of Ibbetson Street, a poetry journal published in Somerville, MA. Both "Thalassa" and "Poetry Edotor" were published in Ibbetson Street.  Dorian also edited Mary Rice’s uncompleted poetry manuscript together with additional poems and arranged for their publication as Angels and Anarchists (Cambridge, MA: Shepard St. Press, 2014).

Thalassa

for Mary Rice, 
who loved Melissa Green’s poem
“At the Seashore” with its recurring line
“Thalassa, cover me”

Walking along the shore
three weeks after you died,

I imagine you with me
alive in the bright air—

your clear eyes squinting
in wind tasting of salt,

your hair tossing 
wild as dune grasses.

We follow a trail inland
past beach roses and pines

where the wind subsides
to sun-flecked stillness.

Later, we notice the tide
rising; we start back,

lingering as paper kites
sail the sky like ospreys,

wanting never to leave
this heavenly place…

Though alone, I think
how this day holds you:

your bountiful spirit
and quiet warmth

as I pace by gray waves, 
submitting at last

to the sudden storm
of losing you.

            —Dorian Brooks © 2011