The poem I share with you today comes from the third section of
my Poetry Anthology A Call to Listen.
This section called Treading Water consists of 13 poems mainly about the ocean, about dawn light and birds of the sea and lake.
Out the window which we call The Big Picture Window is the ocean, and Karangi Point. About three hundred meters further out is a reef of rock which the locals call The Bombora. It is a popular spot for fishing boats, deep sea divers, spear fishermen and of course flocks of Sea Gulls and Oyster Catchers.
On this day the sea was rather rough and the little boat out there bobbing up and down kept disappearing rhythmically behind the waves.
I was touched by the beauty of light and walked down onto the sand to be part of the scene. Enjoy this favourite poem of mine which is also, by the way, a 2015 award winning poem.
treading water
there is a touch of the transcendent
on the horizon today the sky spreads
like the sound of a symphony and shadows
the deep slate of sea with its surge
of rolling energy tufts of crested foam
and sweeps of spindrift thrown in the air
like hands of praise
out there crouches a small grey boat
bobbing in and out of view
a sea snail with its feelers up poised
maybe fishermen or divers near the hidden reef
maybe sailors to catch the coloured winds of the dawn
i do not expect to know more
ebb tide the hollowed waves
like hungry mouths gulp
stretch languidly to the edge
lull like the pause between briny breaths
then recede
on the shoreline of my mind
thoughts tread water
more lonely than the boat on that slate-grey sea
as my footprints meld with the tide
back home i continue
to stream a shelf of diaries