Pacific reflects blue, grey-green

ocean this day reflects blue sky

as when it earned its name, Pacific

how often, though, it belies

any reference to gentleness

when grey-green waves heave

and thunder against

the rocky shore of my Oregon

that i am warned

not to turn my back in disrespect

of the power of its willful moods

Depot Bay at high tide

mad, wind-whipped waves cleaved

to foam by jagged lava rock

rammed through clefts, now blowholes

to fountain as towering vertical spray

or thrashed, unable to escape

from between layers of rock,

before the next wave churns the milky foam

into congealed white curds