Small Points

By Elaine Sexton

Naturally, something that calls itself small 
wants little to do with attention. Geography 
called small is a quiet gush of light, tides
that pool in small sand-banked reservoirs, 
and discreet stands of pines, the trees 
not small, but their conversations are. 
Hush of seals, their heads rise out of small 
waves to gaze at each other and walkers 
on the beach. Small snaps of seaweed, 
and here on this slender (small) point 
of stone and sand, a peninsula, almost silent 
but for small bird calls. And you, present 
in your skin, and your skin, dry, and 
the wind, dry, small. And you, John Marin, 
driving small points in long strokes, water 
in your paint, the sea in your here, now. 


			on John Marin’s “Small Point, Maine”

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Elaine Sexton's fourth collection of poem, Drive, will be published by Grid Books in 2022. Her poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in journals and magazines including the American Poetry Review, Art in America, Five Points, Oprah Magazine, Pleiades, Plume, and Poetry. She teaches poetry at the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. She serves as the visual arts editor for Tupelo Quarterly. See www.elainesexton.org.

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