Sears Island, Fall Equinox, Low Tide

by Linda Buckmaster

Each rock, each
beached tree trunk,
every rockweed mass,
all the nodding blades of beach grass
pulled into relief by the sharpness of Equinox light.

Earth turns and we with it as the sun marches south.
The tide reverses. The boulders stay put
except for shadows moving across
their bulk. I grow older.
We turn, we turn
we turn

Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing up in “Space Coast” Florida during the Sixties and living in midcoast Maine for forty years. She is the former Atlantic and Gulf Editor of the commercial fishing magazine National Fisherman and former poet laureate of Belfast, Maine.

Her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over forty journals. Two pieces were “Notable Essays” in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. She has held numerous residencies around the world. Her hybrid memoir, Space Heart: A Memoir in Stages, was published by Burrow Press in 2018. In 2022, Huntress Press published Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, a series of creative and eclectic responses to the beauty and realities of islands in Maine, Newfoundland, and northwest Scotland. Through essay, poetry, and fiction, Linda traces the imprint of the lowly salt cod over time in communities across the North Atlantic and Caribbean.