Sea
Awakened: hearing breakers crashing
As if on some bleak headland dashing.
Thrust unheeding, ‘I’ is born
To surface in its pale dawn.
A quiet pool, surface unruffled
‘Cept by capricious zephyrs’ breath,
Yet ever sure the water rises
And laps the edge of consciousness.
Dribbles forth a minute trickle,
Seeping, weeping overflow;
A minor rivulet of life,
Being’s quintessential spring.
Now hear the splash of silver stream,
A babbling incoherent rush;
Sparkling, shining, gaily burbling
Onwards in innocent delight.
Frothing, spewing o’er the falls,
The fierce rapids angry roar
Confused, frustrated, venting ire,
Confined by narrow rocky walls.
Stately glides the river deep
Through meads of green, past strongholds proud;
No doubts beset these waters wide,
Sure and certain in their flow.
Meandering now, the waters slow,
Silt banks stifle steady stream;
In stagnant pools and shallow eddies,
Estuarine, the current stemmed.
To sleep: the waves a lullaby,
Distant gulls give plaintiff cry.
Rest now, for ‘I’ no more shall be;
Subsumed by all-embracing sea.
