Sunday Morning

~ Live & Learn

After a century, humpbacks migrate
again to Queens. They left
due to sewage and white froth

banking the shores from polychlorinated-
biphenyl-dumping into the Hudson
and winnowing menhaden schools.

But now grace, dark bodies of song
return. Go to the seaside—

Hold your breath. Submerge.
A black fluke silhouetted
against the Manhattan skyline …

Our songs will pierce the dark
fathoms. Behold the miracle:

what was once lost
now leaps before you.

~ Rajiv Mohabir, from “Why Whales Are Back in New York City”

Notes:

35 thoughts on “Sunday Morning”

  1. We used to go fishing in the river…we’d end up with sunfishes to return to the water, and a couple of boots. I’m so glad that NY has something more refreshing to offer these beautiful mammals..

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    1. Your thought reminds me of:

      These two feelings, this knowledge of a world so awful, this sense of a life so extraordinary — how am I to resolve them?

      ~ Richard Flanagan, Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish (Grove Press; Reprint edition, December 26, 2002)

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  9. This image and story make my heart soar! These days we are constantly barraged by stories explaining how we have driven this or that species to the point of extinction (or beyond). How wonderful that we got it right this time!

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  10. This is fantastic! My heart smiles…to be graced with living wonder..I hope many families found a spot to stand or sit along a pier or bridge to see the Whales (but Eric is excited,about this Return of the Whales) ./// We saw Whales the end of October…so meaningful, we were watching from the shoreline (no whale watching boats)…The end of September we saw the Majestic beauties also, though the tour boats were not welcome and to us standing on the shore the fast boats seemed to not respect the Whales,coming way to close to them…that is the first time I’ve seen this act of stupidity…usually the whale watching boats are respectful to Amazing Whales…

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  13. Oh David, thank you so much for this beautiful poem and photo! I looked up the entire poem, …what was once lost
    now leaps before you…
    and the video’s of this wonderful whale
    About 10 years ago when I was teaching writing, a student (in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers) wrote his senior thesis on the conditions in the Hudson River. I felt so sad even though all sorts of projects were in place to clean up the pervasive mess. That student must be happy now! By the way, all through grammar and high school, we lived near this river, so how wonderful to know there’s true reclamation.
    Again, I love everyone’s responses. I recommend you find the whole poem by Mohabir…

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