May Swenson
The Wave and the Dune
The wave-shaped dune is still.
Its curve does not break,
though it looks as if it will,
like the head of the dune-
shaped wave advancing,
its ridge strewn
with white shards flaking.
A sand-faced image of the wave
is always in the making
Opposite the sea's rough glass
cove, the sand's smooth-whittled cave,
under the brow of grass,
is sunny and still. Rushing
to place its replica
on the shore, the sea is pushing
sketches of itself
incessantly into the foreground.
All the models smash upon the shelf,
but grain by grain the creeping sand
reerects their profiles
and makes them stand.
May Swenson, Collected Poems, Library of America, 2013.