Poem: Coarse Here I Will Continue

Coarse Here I Will Continue

The size of the swell matters.

The sand on the seashore is

Ever present from the crashing 

Of the waves, its color marked

By the cliffs or banks against

Which the swell has beaten.

But an alpine lake in a

Granite outcropping? Even

With the granite’s pliability

If there is any sand it is

Coarse and not much of it

To be found and when it is

It’s like something grating

Into your skin that must 

Be dealt with before you are

Torn. While I love the crashing

Waves of the sea, their girthy

Pounding upon delicate shores,

I think of myself more in the 

Mountains with little ripples

Refusing to refine me.

Allowing my coarseness to stay

While miles away those big

Waves crash away refining

Those cliffs, coarse here I will continue.

January 2025

About This Poem

I love big bodies of water, and, it seems, in the American political and cultural landscape it is more refined to live on the coasts (coastal elitism). I don't actually believe any of that. You can find elitism anywhere in the U.S. as well as less than elite, or coarse. I don't really see myself as either elite or coarse, but I promote the idea of belonging. I feel like I belong on an alpine lake with very little beach, and what beach it has will be of very coarse sand. But obviously the poem also refers to another kind of coarseness, and I can embrace that sometimes as well. The photo is of Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. It's definitely an alpine lake and one that I very much enjoy (though the smaller ones in Idaho where there are not crowds are even better).