Whistling Underwater

By Albert W. Starkey and Frank Winters

It is the birds we rely upon
To keep the sky from falling
On our cloaked compulsions.
AWS from The Sweet Life

Al Starkey does so very well what each of us struggles with. He holds the poignancy and the humor of human experience in his hands at the same time. He invites us to feel intimacy with each other, with nature, and in solitude. He plays with our paradoxes, like whistling underwater, and invites us to share his awe and wonder at the mystery that he more than suspects.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543474589

Albert W. Starkey

Albert Starkey is a past winner of The Atlanta Reviews International poetry competition, a winner of the International Library of Poetrys Open Poetry Contest and most recently, a winner of the 2016 Carriage House Poetry Prize of Tiferet Journal. His poetry has been published in several journals, magazines and two anthologies. It has also been exhibited in Cape Cod art galleries and twice aired on NPRs WCAI, Poetry Sunday in 2017. He is the author of four other collections of poetry titled, On Eireanns Edge, Moonrise Soon, Blue Music and Closer. Al and his wife, Susan have lived for extended periods in their much beloved Ireland over the past fifteen years. They currently reside in the village of Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts.

Book preview

Photography by Frank Winters

Copyright © 2018 by Albert W. Starkey.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017919398

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5434-7460-2

   Softcover   978-1-5434-7459-6

   eBook   978-1-5434-7458-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover Photo, Provincetown Dawn by Frank Winters.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/27/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

772145

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the editors of the following journals and magazines where some of these poems first appeared:

Dessert Call: "Geography of an Irish Soul, So Near to Home, Fog, and Ad Infinitum"

Quail Bell Magazine: "All the Way Back"

Tiferet Journal: Second Place Winner of The Carriage House Poetry Prize for Muir Woods

The Offbeat Magazine: Thursday Morning

The author is also grateful to National Public Radio’s WCAI for broadcasting the readings of Whatever Was Lost Was Staring Back and Muir Woods.

Finally, the author extends his deepest gratitude to Frank Winters, Bart Main and Susan Starkey for their invaluable contributions to the creation and publication of this book.

CONTENTS

ONE

Whatever Was Lost Was Staring Back

Muir Woods

So Near to Home

The Great Salt Marsh

Through

For the Feet of Tiny Birds

Fog

A Coming of Age

Whistling Underwater

This Old House

Thursday Morning

Window Treatments

Inlet

Voyeurs on the Outer Beach

Horarium

The Visitors

Timor Mortis

TWO

A Little Prose in Shades of Blue

The Light of Every Other Sun

All Hallowtide

To Friends from Long Ago

A Memory

In the End

Love Poem

For Love of the Poem

Satori

Bodhisattva

Out on the Far Reaches of Trajectory

Twilight at Yarmouth Port

I Left My Body Alone

Small Miracles

For the Sake of a Sound

The Sweet Life

Whose Distance Is the Measure

At the End of the Day

An Opening

Where Seamus Took Us One Fine Fall Day

Now and Again

THREE

How Will the Children Fare?

Behind the Walls

As Things Become Clear

All the Way Back

Untitled

Crosscurrents

Winter Blossoms

Not Actually, Not Quite

Winter Indulgence

Scent

Spring Passing

Bone Yard, Essex

FOUR

Making for the Stars

A Hope for Home in Yarmouth Port

Out of a Needful Source

The Willow Tree

The Unfinished Moon Rests

Geography of an Irish Soul

Ad Infinitum

About the Photographer

ONE

1SeagullsonPiling33x4.jpg

WHATEVER WAS LOST