Friday I drove to Race Point where Right Whales have been feeding for more than a month.  I just went for the drive, the beach.   As I made my way down the sand, I heard a couple begin to exclaim.  Whales, I asked?  Yes, indeed.  Kindly lending me their binoculars, they pointed, I peered but saw nothing but white caps.  The blue was extraordinary, a deep aquamarine tinted by three o’clock sun, and the white was vivid.  Handing back the borrowed lens, I watched from the beach, encouraged by the courteous pair.  And there it was, a dark smokey plume of spray, signalling Whale!  I saw many such plumes, my first sightings since I moved here, and I was ecstatic. I watched, until it got too cold for me, and I turned to head back.  I thought of Stanley Kunitz and his Wellfleet Whale, and Adrienne Rich, whom we lost a few days ago.  Many more people had gathered, and every so often, I turned back, to see another soft spray of air blown exuberantly into the air, as if to say, we are here, here we are.

Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich, read by Anne Waldman, NYC,5.23.2009.