Kent Fielding
Coral Reef Like Teachers- In memory of Raymond Stein, a friend
Out in the South Pacific
Coral reefs, turquoise from sky,
Grow upon the rims of extinct
Volcanoes, upon dead coral.
These gardens provide habitat
Here schools of yellow fin dance
In orchestrated swirls of light
Ballet and harmony like ideals
Balanced in some cherub’s song
Here eels play hide and seek
In holes and butterfly
Fish flutter like men dreaming
Of worlds beyond their breath
Jellyfish float like ghosts
Of miniature fortresses
Where men battled for an idea
Like religion or an afterlife.
Sea fans spread and sea weed
Reach arms toward the sun
While polyps and crabs
Scuttle the silent floor of sand.
Here in this Eden God’s wisdom
Comes forth in colors: blue, purple, green.
For when coral dies, new coral grows,
Coral upon coral for years
Until out of the sea white land emerges
An island pushed out of the womb
Innocent and new like a baby waking
In the morning of the first day.
The wind and waves carry seeds
And slowly life takes new shapes:
Coarse grass spreads like a rash
Followed by hibiscus and then trees:
Breadfruit and palm. Turtles lay
Eggs on the beach. Birds—heron,
Sandpiper, tern—migrate and build.
Snails, beetles, lizards, toads, rats appear.
Until the wild issues forth its own voice.In a similar way, I think of a teacher
As a coral reef, as a garden underwater
He keeps the important spirit alive
Beneath the surface, he nourishes
He provides, he protects
His classroom is the calm of water
Where ideas like plankton take in light
And grow into larger fish, into larger beings.
The teacher directs, the teacher cultivates
And finally the teacher pushes forth
Islands into the sun to become their
Own gardens, their own patches of life.
Bio:
Kent Fielding's first book of poetry Chief Iffucan was published in 2002 by Wasteland Press. His work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Prairie Schooner, Asheville Poetry Review, Modern Haiku, Pavement Saw, Frisk Magazine, Bottle Rockets, Wilmington Blues and others. He currently teaches in the Marshall Islands.
