All the Ishmaels – a poem by James Green

All the Ishmaels


I think of all the Ishmaels, nomads 
of deserts, of seas, as I walk these streets at night. 
A rain has rinsed the fallen leaves and now 
it is so still I must remind myself 
not to trust the comfort this silence brings. 
Ishmael who learned to tune himself 
to the whispers of the desert wind, 
to the rhythm of a schooner rising 
and falling through green hillocks of the sea. 
I suppose we are all at sea, somewhere 
between horizons, following in the path 
of one man’s evil, another’s God, watchful, 
hunched neckless in our peacoats, listening 
for signals in the fog.

James Green is a retired university professor and administrator.  He has published six chapbooks of poetry and individual poems have appeared in literary journals in Ireland, the UK, and the USA. His previous works have been nominated for a Puschcart Prize, “Best of the Net” and the Modern Language Association Conference on Christianity Book of the Year; and, his chapbook titled Long Journey Home: Poems on Classical Myths won the Charles Dickson Prize sponsored by the Georgia Poetry Society. His website can be found at http://www.jamesgreenpoetry.net.