SIV, WITH OCEAN (PACIFIC)

Lace woven and rewoven with every wave
and then let slip from her shoulder to reveal,
only to conceal again. Cliffs marching off
into the mist in the distance. Into this moment
the redwoods have flung themselves, out of the green
tangle below the terrace, up past our vision,
chunky and vast and thronging with bluejays and
ravens that dart out of their darknesses to
forage among the plates of the people lunching
there- up into the blue sky that goes all the way
to the horizon. Past her profile you can just make out
a bit of the road that runs north and south behind her,
out of view. Far out, on the various blues, all of them
moving, the wakes of the little boats intersect each other
and fade in the foam, lace woven and rewoven. She
and the moment are one thing, contained, the way the shoulder
of that cliff is just slipping back into the mist, the way
the various blues, all of them moving, are marching off
toward the horizon

-Ron Loewinsohn

Berkeley’s poetry Walk was laid in October 2003 along Edison Street between Shattuck and Milvia Streets. The route includes 128 metal plates with excerpts from songs, each of which is related in one way or another to the city of Berkeley.

The current sign features a poem written by the American poet and writer Ron Loewinsohn (1937-2014), who belonged to the San Francisco Renaissance. Levinson taught at Berkeley University and was married to Siv to whom the song is dedicated