Dream Gift

Dad, when did you learn the name of Odin Whose name you would cry as we roared across The Sound in your motorboat, salt-spray Foaming on you red hair and freckled face As you harnessed the power of the sea To fly? Odin: Norse god of poetry, War, wisdom; solitary wanderer Through the cosmos, restlessly searching. Did you call “Odin!” on landlocked Sundays As you walked the dog through spindly birch, Sea deep in memory of island pastures Returned to wild spaces where you imagined The fierce greatness of a wild All-Father, The might and mystery of the sea, without apology. In Memory of George O. Carlson 1939-2020