• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Bruce Valley, Author

  • Contact Us
  • Books by Bruce Valley
  • Order Books
  • Contact Us
  • Books by Bruce Valley
  • Order Books

Rye Harbor

May 27, 2020

Rye Harbor, Poems of the New Hampshire Seacoast

This small volume of poetry is intended to describe the stoic, hardy magnificence of seacoast New Hampshire—and the experience of growing up in its world of granite stone walls, crashing breakers, and soaring gulls.

Rye Harbor reprises a long-unavailable poetry book written five decades ago about growing up on the seacoast of New Hampshire. A former Navy test pilot and former chief executive of an aerospace corporation in Alexandria, Virginia, Bruce Valley lives in Rye Harbor, New Hampshire, plays jazz trumpet, and writes of matters which touch heart and soul.

Rye NH

The Skater

Skating on a solitary grey afternoon
Through a soft blanket of snow crystals,
I saw a tiny speck.
Swiftly it traversed the frozen expanse,
The lumpy birched shoreline outlining its motion,
Then disappeared around a bend.
Another skater had picked this day
To chill his hands and warm his thoughts
On the Mill Pond ice.
I followed.
The speck became a figure
Weaving along the fickle path
Of an errant stream.
Bound as I in heavy clothes,
He lumbered in an awkward rhythm
Like maples bent with icy load
By frosty winter winds.
As I drew close, he heard the sound
Of his pursuer and stopped,
His breath whitening in the air.
As he brought a pipe to his mouth,
My father smiled.

Filed Under: Books, Poetry

Next Post: SEAHAWK: Confessions of an Old Hockey Goalie Seahawk, Confessions of an Old Hockey Goalie by Bruce Valley»

Copyright © 2021 · Bruce Valley, Rye, New Hampshire 03870