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      May 21, 2009Dawn on MauiJohn Laue

      The horizontal clouds

      above Molokai and Lanai
      are turning pearly.
      I sit with a cigarette
      looking through the interstices
      of a palm tree,
      watching light come slowly
      to the sky and ocean.
      All night long I’ve heard
      white noise, seen white lines
      of phosphorescent surf
      advance through darkness.
      Once a boat’s dim lights
      swept from left to right
      but that was all the news
      from civilization.
      It seemed as if
      I were in a wilderness
      lying next to
      some great beast
      which kept me awake
      with its loud breathing.

      John Laue

      “I commenced writing poetry while at U.C. Berkeley in the late 1950s. There I attend a jazz and poetry reading featuring one of the Beat poets (I can’t recall which one). Being a jazz and blues musician, I went for the music but became fascinated by the words. I’d already written for local newspapers and edited a junior college paper, but poetry was an entirely new area for me. Nevertheless, I thought I’d try it. The poem in this issue is from my Hawaiian series which is unpublished as a full-length book. I wrote most of them while my wife snorkeled during several vacation trips to the Islands.”

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