[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 19, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




RECOGNIZING WILLIAM CLAIRE FOR HIS POEM, THE HEARTBEAT OF CAPE HENLOPEN 
                                  PARK

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                       HON. LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 19, 2023

  Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to include in the 
Record a poem by Mr. William Claire, a distinguished poet, essayist, 
and author who made Lewes, Delaware his home. This poem speaks to the 
First State's captivating beauty and reminds us to treasure and protect 
our coastlines. It is my sincere hope that all who read Mr. Claire's 
poem are similarly inspired to reflect on the magnificence of the 
natural world.

     It's elemental, dear Senor Neruda,
     like your ode to glories
     of bird watching; ``sailors of the air,''
     or, if near here, por ejemplo
     horseshoe crab-eggs
     at spawning time,
     God's manna for valiant red knots
     flying nonstop from the southern tip
     of Patagonia in your Tierra del Fuego
     enroute to a frigid Arctic
     surviving and doubling their weight
     at paradise here on earth . . .
     Ruddy turnstones nibbling now
     at ocean's edge; the pulse and throb
     of The Great Dune Overlook
     where we bring visitors
     from a land-locked midwest
     with a diminishing August
     daylight mist off the Atlantic
     knowing we are all stage-struck
     passers-by on specks of land
     windblown here whether
     we do or do not witness this Dune
     sand hill built by the aeolian process . . .
     Our treasured land safe
     from a decaying half-life of time
     and tempests, nurturing now
     exotic plants and animals
     where once lonely sentries
     in Ghost Towers kept watch
     by day & unearthly nights,
     targeting by triangulation
     German submarines prowling
     our shores; programmed
     by madmen with desperate dreams
     until their surrender here
     restored natural harmonies:
     say now with reverence . . .
     piping plovers, shifting sands,
     wind, water, air, sanderlings
     majestic now from our
     mini-Mt. Olympus-like view
     and utopian spur of land.

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