National Poetry Day

As today is National Poetry Day, I thought I would do something completely different on this here blog.

So, for one day only, I am revisiting something I originally wrote 12 years ago. I hope you enjoy ...

I, Sea

The storm is raging harshly
Sky so malevolent and dark
My world is turning upside down
Heart is racing so fast
My senses numbed to everything but the taste of salt
Body barely floating on this watery abyss
Every few seconds I'm plunged beneath the surface
Though my urge to survive is strong
My body is weakening

I see the enormous Everests of sea
Rising up before me in perpetual motion
The magnificent white stallions gallop on their peaks
Scooping me up in their powerful stride
Carrying me into the valleys and the depths oh so deep
The rain lashes the surface in the howling winds
Creating such intricate patterns on the roiling surface
Angry clouds glowering harshly in a vision of hell
Augmented by the lightning tearing the heavens asunder

I'm so alone in this void of neverending movement
My shipmates scattered by the tempest to who knows where ?
Maybe their fight has already ended
Maybe they too are lost in the wilderness like I
I'm so far from safety in this desert so fluid
Resigned to the knowledge that I'll never again see land
Shrouded in the cold my tears are indistinguishable
As they are washed away casually in the greyness around

I wonder if you can hear me as I fight so hard to breathe ?
I wonder if you can feel me reaching out for your loving touch ?
Know now that I see only your beauty in my perilous predicament
The one and only reason a smile is present on my face
Recalling the last time I gazed into your infinite eyes
Of the feelings I always have when I hold you in my arms
Seeing the tears you shed when our boat left the harbour
You never once stopped waving to me all the time we were in sight

I will always remember fondly of our happy times together
Of when we would laugh and sometimes we would cry
Then the land slowly slipped away under the horizon
Our company of gulls diminishing as we plotted our course upon the ocean
Still I would sit every sunset looking across the expanse
In the direction where you wait for my eventual return
Everything so tranquil, so peaceful, so benign
So happy on the seas where I always felt I belong

An illusion that lulls to a false sense of security
Because the ocean becomes a raging beast unexpectedly quick
We fought so hard against everything the elements threw at us
For so long it seemed we might see it through
But you won't know just yet that we were defeated in our battle
Though I'm sure by now you're aware we are in peril
My eyes are hurting, my sight becoming dim
Feeling a sense of detachment washing over my soul
The sun bathes me through a break in the clouds
Rays of light searing down and burning my vision

Suddenly there is calm and respite from the storm
I think I'm hallucinating at what I perceive before me
A dolphin stares at me in this oasis of light
Edging toward me I see the intelligence in her eyes
She understands my predicament and my fast fading life
Could she be God's lonely ambassador in this endless shroud ?
Is she here to guide me in my hour of need ?
I'm no longer afraid and feel a sense of serenity
Gently she nuzzles me as if in a comforting embrace

The solar orb disappears and everything returns black as night
Once again the ocean becomes a violent entity of contempt
Can you hear me my darling ?
Can you hear my final request ?
Walk to the shoreline
Look for my new found friend
She can tell you of my final moments
She can tell you of the love that I bear
Though never again will I be able to hold you so tenderly
Know my love for you remains as strong as ever
This is the beginning, it will never be the end