In ​“Beach­comber Noc­turne”, Lupi­ta Eyde-Tuck­er beau­ti­ful­ly wres­tles with the com­plex rela­tion­ship that we some­times have with nature, by first acknowl­edg­ing that there is a strange col­o­niz­ing impulse behind the man­ner in which we appre­hend and love the nat­ur­al world, by see­ing it in our own image. Her awe, how­ev­er, is also cap­tured ele­gant­ly in her sense of help­less­ness as a wit­ness and a crea­ture of this grand design. For some rea­son, I find myself com­ing back to the phrase, ​“the ocean’s pur­ple evening”, so I con­sid­er the poem yet anoth­er of those ​“odd gifts” the world offers us.