Born Again

What a concept!

I am a child swimming in the sea

I feel so small

Salty water touches my lips

I rise and fall on the waves

The sun is above me

The depth of the water is unknown

I swim with measured strokes

My vision is limited

Time hides from me

I am a child swimming in the sea

I don’t belong here

Yet I came from here

A saline world of distant memory

Cleanses me, supports me, owns my body

I slip through the water arm over arm

In gratitude and uncertainty

Only the sun and moon measure time now

The sea obeys them and I obey the sea

I am free and equally a captive

Courage and fear break over me

In blue-green waves of emotion

I hear a familiar voice,

“Swim on, this your journey”.

I am alone, yet surrounded by life

Infinity is revealed in flashes of light

Bracketed by the parenthetical blackness

I close my eyes in awe and terror

I cannot see what I don’t know

I only know what I feel

Knowledge is useless in the company of infinity

It has no brain to record information

Only hands that reach out and catch me

As I fall into the arms of time.

The sea recedes around me

Only the faintest trace of salt lingers

I am free, I am captured

___________________________________________________

The genesis of the poem came to me recently when I was swimming in the clear blue waters of the Ionian Sea. I hadn’t been in saltwater for a very long time. The last time was when I was in the Gulf of Aden swimming alongside a whale shark. Then, as in this recent saltwater experience, I was struck by how supportive and indifferent a sea can be. It will let you drown if you do not conform to its rules.

In this recent experience, I again realized that the sea is in charge. As I swam, enjoying the cool relief from the summer heat, a fatigue quickly came over me. It became imperative that I head to shore. This turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated.

The sea floor was rocky. My feet kept slipping on the steep incline of the shore’s edge. It seemed the harder I tried to make those last few feet, the the more unattainable it felt.

Just as I was about to resort to crawling like a one of Darwin’s creatures evolving to land-based life, my Albanian friend appeared and extended his large hand and pulled me to shore. I promptly sat down and, with heaving chest, regained a reverence for the power of creation and destruction.

____________________________________________________

Thank you for being my reader. Your interest is what keeps me writing. I welcome your feedback.

Life is tenuous at best. Laugh, love, share. It’s what makes living worth the struggle.

I welcome my newest reader: “vikings”

Please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe. There is no charge.