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REDONDO BEACH

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A Poem by Robert Brophy    Lines for Matthew Arnold or variations on “Dover Beach”   The sea is calm tonight, And bleakness full, the fog lies eerie Upon the shore; toward the pier a car light Glimmers and is gone; the cliffs off Palos Verdes stand. Come to the verge, strange is the starless aerie. Only, from the long line of foam Where sea meets fog-blanched sand, Listen! You’ll hear those without home Grieving while the waves draw back, and fling On their return, up where cold forms stand, Hiss, then cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring, Yes, infernal notes of impoverishment in. Jack Smith not long ago Heard it by Newport Pier, and it brought Into his mind that turbid flow Of Southland misery; we Find also, in the sound, the selfsame thought, Hearing it by this the South Bay sea. Locked restroom stalls Were once accessible, and round earth’s shore Apartments not burdened with enormous rent, But now we only hear The melancholy, long, foreclosing roar Adj