SOUND OF TWO HANDS CLAPPING

I am just back from a trip to Dubai and Oman. It was too brief a time. Oman was amazing. While I was there we went on a dolphin spotting trip. Afterwards I wrote this poem.

Dolphin Watching in Oman

The sound of two hands clapping,

repeated.

It will, I am told, draw the dolphins.

Possibly one hundred people,

in six boats, mill around the bay.

The large hands slap again.

Engines idle, the man maintains his rhythm.

There is applause as the mammals surface.

We chase them or they follow us, it is difficult to tell.

Do they care that an industry has developed around them?

They left the land to us a long time ago,

returned to the water.

Now we search for them as if they had some of the answers.

I have to end this post with Fred Neil's song The Dolphins. Here's Tim Buckley's cover.