Tag: poems about Cape Cod

Clamor

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date May 28, 2025
2 Comments on Clamor

I am back on terra firma, sound rushing through my feet and up in a cacophony of thought, worry, consternation that somehow fades on the coast, transitions into whitecaps and whale song, a quiet not to be found among these common conflicts at home, the roar of traffic, the flight plan overhead, the bells and buzzes of business.

How is the sound of the ocean and all its occupants some two miles deep meager competition to the loudness of this day today? The ever present noise of them and us and this…even here in my beloved woods.

Poem & Photo ©2025 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about nature, Poetry

Creativity Poetry

Screen Porch, 4 a.m.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about death, poems about dying, poems about silence, Poetry, Race Point Beach, Writing

Creativity Poetry

Love is Blind

Hindsight is 20/20
except when
what you’d been seeing
then, back then,
was larger than life,
grander than anything
you could imagine
and so enormously
out of proportion that…
now, hindsight is
microscopic
requiring
broken circles of glass —
that you try not to bite down on
too hard or else you might
bleed even more than
you already have —
to see what was
right in front of your eyes
all along
how minuscule you had
to make yourself
to fit into that space
that small mindedness
that box with clearly defined edges
(and no imagination)
but these are things
you don’t see through
rose colored glasses
their purpose only
to color inside the lines
with one conforming color
the vision of what
you were programmed
to think you wanted
that small sweet girl
and her dolls playing
make believe
building castles out of
miss-matched pieces
instead of telescopes
with which to see
the much bigger picture.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about death, poems about dying, poems about silence, Poetry, Race Point Beach, Writing

Creativity Poetry

Morning Haiku

Why did the turkey

jump the fence

wings beat with effort

Photo from National Park Service. Poem ©2025 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about death, poems about dying, poems about silence, Poetry, Race Point Beach, Writing

Creativity Poetry

The Morning’s Palette

Radar shows the storm
purple and red and gold
but all I see for miles
are shades of Cape Cod gray
pale where the sky should be
a graphite-thin horizon line
its boats like ghosts
and a graduated green-gray ocean
punctuated by the occasional
wild white cap making its way to shore
even the trees are gray this morning
their late spring effort almost forgot
inside this passing storm
whose endings promise blue.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about death, poems about dying, poems about silence, Poetry, Race Point Beach, Writing

Creativity Poetry

Sunset Day

Bring me here, darling,
the day I die.
Let’s hope the seals
bob curiously at our folly
and the black cap gulls
make us laugh along with them.

Let’s manifest giant waves —
the kind little boys scream into —
and a full moon that plays
hide and seek
with the setting sun
behind billowed clouds
and tall green grasses.

We can celebrate whale spouts
and whale tails
and the fine thin lines
of birds come back —
that life goes on
and a moment of joy
can last forever, here,
a laugh, a dance, and love
worn smooth with time.

We’ll hope for a cold spring day
you and me alone on the dunes
and that one final breathtaking breeze
to push me forward into oblivion.

Photo (Race Point Beach, Cape Cod) and Poem ©2025 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about death, poems about dying, poems about silence, Poetry, Race Point Beach, Writing

Creativity Poetry

About Silence

To cultivate silence

is a monstrous effort

in this loud, mad world.

Photo and Poem ©2025 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about silence, Poetry, Writing

Creativity Poetry

30-Love Underfoot

Heart-shaped rocks
underfoot
all around
on the grassy path
and sand dune
from here to the shore
and at the water’s edge

(dare I say even in the palm of the Garçon
at the pâtisserie
whose smile needed no translation)

Hearts!

There was a time I would have
come home with enough
heart-shaped rocks
to border a banister,
fill a bowl and basket,
lined them up to show
the Garçon
in the morning
with coffee and croissants

but I am content now to find
moon stones instead
translucent
round and easy
love in the stars,
the sky, the universe
enough

Photo and Poem ©2025 Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Anthropocene, Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, heart shaped rocks, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, nature writing, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about nature, poems about possibility, Poetry, Writing

Creativity Poetry

29-Possibility

In a persistent
effort
to weave a web
the spider
imperceptible
casts her
silver filaments
from the uppermost
spire of a
wintered
beach plum
one thin
budded branch
from which
a hundred casts
arc and fall
arc and fall
her small labors
shimmering
in afternoon light
prayers of
possibility
glittering

Photo by Matt Hardy. Poem ©2025 Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Anthropocene, Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, nature writing, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about nature, poems about possibility, Poetry, Writing

Creativity Poetry

28-The View from Here

There is a slice
of ocean
outside
my window
and in it
the world
from a view
just above
a confluence
of birdsong
and whalesong
the mechanics
of the day
juxtaposed to
sweet, sweet
silence.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Anthropocene, Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, nature writing, Poem, Poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about nature, Poetry, Writing

Memoir National Poetry Month Nature Poetry Writing

The Whale Show

No one seems to notice the whale doing backflips down the aisle. Small and almost indiscernible from the waves in the bay, maybe it’s the lighting that gives it a forced perspective. Because there, to the east, the sun sits center stage and setting. So while 30 faces bask in the golden glow of stardom, just one looks east at a sideshow not to be missed.

Tags Cape Cod, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry, poets, Three Chairs Publishing

Memoir National Poetry Month Nature Poetry Writing

Haunting

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date May 5, 2024
No Comments on Haunting

I sense her ghost here
on this blustery coast
400 miles east of where she lived
and lies, still, now
Perhaps she came here
with Him, my grandfather
kept his house here, too
in routine obedience
but her haunting is more subtle
more hint than apparition
she’s a shadow at the window
moving white cotton curtains
for a first view of morning,
a creak in the wood plank floors
and a swish of sweeping sand,
the smell of ivory soap
and eucalyptus by the sink
its cold cast iron against my belly
sends a chill as I suddenly
consider a cup of tea
and her early silent pleasures.

Photo and Poem ©2024, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, poems about Cape Cod, poems about ghosts, Poetry

Memoir National Poetry Month Nature Poetry Writing

28 – Delusions of Grandeur

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date April 28, 2024
No Comments on 28 – Delusions of Grandeur

To my left
the great star sets
while to my right
the full moon rises
in between
nothing but this
odd appendage of land
jut out into the sea
and I think for a moment
that if I stand tall and wide
and step one way
or the other
I might instigate
some universal force
to move them

up
and
down

back
and
forth

at my command

I am Rose on the bow
queen of the world
ancient goddess who
commands the fulcrum

day
and
night

then
and
now

up
and
down

back
and
forth

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry

Memoir National Poetry Month Nature Poetry Writing

27 – At Province Lands

The red fox
near Race Point Beach
circles back as if to ask
“are you coming this time?”

We’ve met before,
he and I, here
on this sacred sequence
but I don’t recall him asking

it was more of a tease then
to this serious request
and I consider
for a moment following

through the pitch pine
and winter heath
into the dunes
lie on my back

forever to watch the stars
as whales breach
and moons rise over
my bare white bones

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry

Memoir National Poetry Month Nature Poetry Writing

26 – Whale Watching

While watching whales,
wondering:
do they laugh
as they breach,
squeal in delight,
exalt the air
with fins and tails
and tittering,
or is the entirety of joy
contained in the
ooomph! and huzzah!
spouted
for all to see?

Photo by Taylen Lundequam. Poem ©2024, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry

Memoir National Poetry Month Nature Poetry Writing

25 – Sleeping in Truro

FOR GREG

How are you a ghost here
when you were often only a conversation
words on a keypad
our ethernet tethers and ideals
someone I barely knew
save for a soft, full kiss on tiptoes
and the perfumed promise
of again and more
on a day that never came

but here, in Truro now,
your ghost whispers daily
of bourbon and dunes
the curve near Longnook
a family I never met

and Cassie at the Lobster Pot
you, even then, a shadow
of what might have been
those air wave words
“whatever she wants”
you told her
paying the price
from two thousand miles away

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry

National Poetry Month Poetry Writing

5 – Grieving Place, 1

in the morning, usually,

before the day-to-day began

there was a space in which

you could hear the tide

watch the tightrope act of crows

their sunrise spotlight

smell the pitch pines

and housekeeping steam

Beverly or Doris arrived by 9

in a clamoring of car doors

and office doors

before the creak of steps

when Thaiwin appeared

with fresh towels

that soap that said

Bienvenue

and I was Welcome

every time for a decade

big smiles and warm hugs

first names and

how are yous like family

at the start of my days

those weeks by the shore

Photo & Poem ©2023, Jen Payne in memory of weeks spent in an old time hotel by the shore. The Village Green on Cape Cod, now closed, was sold in 2021 by the owners after 35 years in business. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Grief, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry

Creativity

#30 – Vacation

#30 – Vacation

It’s hard to be

come what may

on the last day

this gray area

between here

and there

every movement

with its purpose

with its label of last

instead of a careless toss

there is a careful folding

of what we thought to bring

and treasures found

the kneel to check for things

that one last time

feels like prayer

please, god,

let me have one more day

amen

Photo (Cape Cod, MA) & Poem ©2022, Jen Payne. #NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, 30 poems in 30 days, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod

Creativity

#29 – What will make a bookmark…

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date May 2, 2022
3 Comments on #29 – What will make a bookmark…

#29 – What will make a bookmark…

I have a bookmark box.

(Do you?)

In it, a random set

of handmade helpers

who save pages for me,

say YOU WERE HERE

as a reminder.

(But I dogear, too, much to their chagrin.)

When not nearby

or in a pinch

a gum wrapper maybe or

ribbon

feather

fob

once, a pressed ginkgo leaf

often, a friend’s cross-stitch

sometimes, his father’s 3×5 notecards
from New Guinea c. 1936

most recently, a note from my host to please remove my shoes before climbing up the ladder to the loft where I read Mary Oliver by moonlight.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, 30 poems in 30 days, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod

Creativity

#28 – Camouflage

#28 – Camouflage

A lone spring peeper

disclosed its location

by chorus too soon

then disappeared —

so I hid behind

my walking stick

hoping to mimic a tree,

share in its secret song

one more time.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, 30 poems in 30 days, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod

Creativity

#27 – I saw a secret to share

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date May 1, 2022
No Comments on #27 – I saw a secret to share

#28 – I saw a secret to share

it’s my secret

here

this wide beach

this wide, wild ocean

the wind, waves,

white caps

Whales!

(shhhhh!)

there, at the horizon

*p*

{ applause }

shhhh!

Whales!

Tags #NaPoWriMo, 30 poems in 30 days, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod

Creativity

#26 – JOY!

JOY!

How does one not

clap for

JOY!

at the sight of

one

whale

breaching?

Tags #NaPoWriMo, 30 poems in 30 days, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems about Cape Cod

Nature Poetry Writing

Sanderlings

Perhaps it is the same flock,
the one I met years ago,
the one that startled me
here on this shore
that very first walk,
when every rock and curve,
every wind and wave
was unfamiliar still.

Perhaps it knows me now,
this flock of small fidgety birds,
always nervous or impatient,
quickened by anticipation of
the next wave, skittering
to the beat of their sharp trills,
quickly quickly ahead
never near enough for hello again.

Until this morning when I,
in keen focus on a resting shell,
became for a moment
likewise and warmed by the sun,
looked up to find myself surrounded,
heart quickened and nervous
that one false move would startle them,
their gathering at my feet.

Poem and Photo ©2020, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, then you’ll love WAITING OUT THE STORM, a collection of my poems about Cape Cod. Click here to buy the book now.

Tags books about Cape Cod, CT Poet, Jen Payne, Nature, nature poems, poems about Cape Cod, poems about mindfulness, writing in a pandemic

Creativity Poetry Spirituality Writing

Gratitude

For this
this ground beneath my feet,
the signs of seasons, yes, and change
forever change

footsteps
…..forward
……….fortitude
fearlessness

solitude
communion

grace
…..god

greatness in small things……….and large
this, this ground beneath my feet

holds everything
…..and me

spinning forward across a galaxy
…..a universe

and She of all things
in every footstep

here, this ground beneath my feet

Tags gratitude, poems about Cape Cod, Poetry, Spirituality

Books Creativity

Even Now: The Solace of Nature

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date October 23, 2020
1 Comment on Even Now: The Solace of Nature

Waiting Out the Storm

Poetry by Jennifer A. Payne

“Not till we are lost, in other words not till
we have lost the world, do we begin to find
ourselves, and realize where we are
and the infinite extent of our relations.”
— Henry David Thoreau

Written from the shoreline of Connecticut and the wide and windswept beaches of Cape Cod, this book is an intimate look at life transitions and how we cope with the unexpected.

Reflecting on the sudden loss of a close friend, author Jen Payne returns, as she does in her past books LOOK UP! and Evidence of Flossing, to the solace of nature. On the opening pages, she allows the poet Rilke to remind the reader “Through the empty branches the sky remains. It is what you have. Be earth now, and evensong. Be the ground lying under that sky.”

PRINT
5.5 x 8.5, Paperback, 44 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9905651-4-7
$15.00 (plus tax + shipping)

EBOOK
Epub, 40 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-9905651-8-5
$4.99 (digital download)

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Books, Jen Payne, poems about Cape Cod, poems about grief, poems about loss, poetry in a pandemic

Books Creativity

Coping with the Unexpected

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date June 17, 2020
No Comments on Coping with the Unexpected

Waiting Out the Storm

Poetry by Jennifer A. Payne

Written from the shoreline of Connecticut and the wide and windswept beaches of Cape Cod, this book is an intimate look at life transitions and how we cope with the unexpected.

PRINT
5.5 x 8.5, Paperback, 44 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9905651-4-7
$15.00 (plus tax + shipping)

EBOOK
Epub, 40 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-9905651-8-5
$4.99 (digital download)

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Books, Jen Payne, poems about Cape Cod, poems about grief, poems about loss, poetry in a pandemic

Creativity Poetry Travel

Retreat by Proxy

If not the respite
of the ocean now,
the Cape,
her wide wild shore
then this

this
sun rising here
and gulls,
not the same but
still

but still a sky, brilliant
and breeze
maybe even waves
if I wait

and if

if I am quite enough

the buoy offshore
rings

the ocean in a shell
marks time

Photo and Poem ©2020, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Tags New York City, pandemic poetry, poems about Cape Cod, poems in a pandemic, Poetry, poets, Travel

Books Creativity

Finding the Solace of Nature

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date April 28, 2020
No Comments on Finding the Solace of Nature

Waiting Out the Storm

Poetry by Jennifer A. Payne

Written from the shoreline of Connecticut and the wide and windswept beaches of Cape Cod, this book is an intimate look at life transitions and how we cope with the unexpected.

PRINT
5.5 x 8.5, Paperback, 44 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9905651-4-7
$15.00 (plus tax + shipping)

EBOOK
Epub, 40 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-9905651-8-5
$4.99 (digital download)

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Books, Jen Payne, poems about Cape Cod, poems about grief, poems about loss, poetry in a pandemic

Why did the turkey

jump the fence

wings beat with effort

To cultivate silence

is a monstrous effort

in this loud, mad world.

Poem and Photo ©2020, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, then you’ll love WAITING OUT THE STORM, a collection of my poems about Cape Cod. Click here to buy the book now.

Poem + Photo ©2018, Jen Payne.

Waiting Out the Storm

Waiting Out the Storm

Photo and Poem ©2020, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Waiting Out the Storm