I have stood upon this shore so many times
on the spring tide of 14
the summer swell of 21, the
neap tide of nearly 40
and the sea has told me many things:
the joy and power of love, of
fortunes won and lost
I’ve wanted a boat sometimes
and I’m not so strong a swimmer but
the best is when you dive in
salt cakes your hair and skin
the cold sting takes your breath away
and gives you back your life
even when you go too far
and there’s the fear you won’t get back and
something else, detachedness – a strangeness
Thel is like a watry bow. and like a parting cloud.
And what are we of any substance? Wave
patterns we leave behind on the sand
constantly weaving in and out this path of life
coming and going, waving goodbye, just
barely touching
everything.
© Experimentsinfiction 2021, All Rights Reserved
Sharing with Earthweal’s Open Link Weekend. Quote in Italics is from The Book of Thel by William Blake.
Oh this is so lovely… ethereal and powerful with such truths of the sea Ingrid.
14, 21, 40 and more to come as you touch the water and sand again and again!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Let’s hope so! 🌊
“barely touching everything” Yes!
Thank you Tricia 🙏
Wow Ingrid! Beautiful xx
Thank you 🙏
This is amazing. Your descriptions and prose are incredible. I love this poem and will be keeping a copy because I am still waiting for a collection of your work to be published
Thank you Deborah, that means so much to me! Perhaps when the children return to school I can start to look at publication options…😊
Beautiful.
“salt cakes your hair and skin
the cold sting takes your breath away
and gives you back your life”
xoxo
😊🙏❤️
As always with your poems, some lovely imagery.🙂
Love the feeling and imagery in this; the opening lines and the final two connected with me most. I do not see the sea nearly enough but it is something to dream of.
Thank you, Jaya! I’m lucky to be living by the sea right now, but when I was away I missed it.
The only way is through. But you’re still so young! I know it doesn’t feel so, but believe it. Savor it. (K)
Somewhere in the middle, hopefully!
“The cold sting takes your breath away / and gives you back your life” is an unrelenting gift, a pattern the sea makes evident in all it does. As we do, being essentially of the sea .. The numbers in the first stanza were a little confusing to me, you’re talking the number of years? For me, I was baptized there at 14, fell in love there at 22, honeymooned next to it at 45, will cast my mother’s ashes in it this year, aged 63 … Anyway, thanks for reminding me the sea courses under this chair …Brendan
Thank you Brendan – yes, I was talking of different ages when the sea made a particular impact on my life. There have been many others, of course, but as you know there is a rhetorical power in 3s…
I love the ocean and swimming in it, the salt and sun adds texture to the moment. I do think in life we barely touch the surface of what is and what can be. I have missed the ocean this year but, in the spring I will take a drive to visit it before the summer crowds. It speaks to me sometimes in a whisper and sometimes it roars with each crashing wave.
I know that feeling! I hope you manage to get out there in spring…
So gorgeous, the seasons of life weaving in and out like the waves………I LOVE the closing lines! Awesome.
Thank you Sherry 🙂