The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
And that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
In a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.
The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
Of interrupting water comes and goes
The odd word “finical” means fussy or fastidious. “Finical”, as opposed to “finicky”, though, is a fussier word, and perfectly encapsulates the paradoxical state of cool anxiety or tamped-down frenzy that captures the emotional posture of both sandpiper and the poet Bishop herself.
The Sandpiper