Swells by A. R. Ammons

Swells

 

The very longest swell in the ocean, I suspect, 

carries the deepest memory, the information of actions 

summarized (surface peaks and dibbles and local sharp 

 

slopes of windstorms) with a summary of the summaries 

and under other summaries a deeper summary: well, maybe 

deeper, longer for length here is the same as deep 

 

time: so that the longest swell swells least; that 

is, its effects in immediate events are least perceptible, 

a pitch to white water rising say a millimeter more 

 

because of an old invisible presence: and on the ocean 

floor an average so vast occurs it moves in a noticeability 

of a thousand years, every blip, though, of surface and 

 

intermediacy moderated into account: I like to go 

to old places where the effect dwells, summits or seas 

so hard to summon into mind, even with the natural 

 

ones hard to climb or weigh: I go there in my mind 

(which is, after all, where these things negotiably are) 

and tune in to the wave nearly beyond rise or fall in its 

 

staying and hum the constant, universal assimilation: the 

information, so packed, nearly silenced with majesty 

and communicating hardly any action: go there and 

 

rest from the ragged and rapid pulse, the immediate threat 

shot up in a disintegrating spray, the many thoughts and 

sights unmanageable, the deaths of so many, hungry or mad.