Common Ground
At my feet a silent tide
The midsummer light’s crashed
through the trees, fills the grass
recedes and foams to nothing
In the shadow of mountains the ocean
comes to me as you once did
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Translations from the English 
Another beauty. Great, Jeff.
Thank you, sir. I think I wrote about a dozen purely different versions of this poem, and this is the one that I finally liked.
I really don’t like the title of this beautiful haunting poem. Why this title?
It’s a pretty bland title, I’ll give you that. I was thinking of the very small piece of real estate where the ocean comes to the mountain through that trick of light and motion, or where one person comes to another in a moment of pure decision to love. Even in relationships there is little common ground–maybe it’s the most uncommon thing there is. So I used that title precisely because it’s bland, with that inside-out notion of it in the poem, that the true common ground is the so-nearly-uncommon-and-impossible-it’s-magical moment, like when the ocean comes to the mountain. But is it a good title, give its immediate blandness and place in the vernacular? It’s a good question, and I’ll think on it.