I used to walk out, at night, to the breakwater which divides the end of the harbor form the broad moor of the salt marsh. There was nothing to block the wind that had picked up speed and vigor from its Atlantic crossing. Id study the stars in their brilliant blazing, the diaphanous swath of the milk Way, the distant glow of Boston backlighting the clouds on the horizon as if theyd been drawn there in smudgy charcoal. I felt, perhaps for the first time, particularly American, embedded in American history, here at the nations slender tip. Here our westering impulse, having flooded the continent and turned back, finds itself face to face with the originating Atlantic, Novembers chill, salt expanses, what Hart Crane called the unfettered leewardings, here at the end of the world.
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About Mark Doty
Mark Doty was a contemporary American poet and memoirist. Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work My Alexandria. He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. Read more on Wikipedia →