the ocean – here
a response to Haiku Horizon’s prompt – Ocean
and with total respect to and in awe of Toni Child’s Where’s the Ocean?
water
gratitude #2/10
I am grateful for water today. I am grateful for the beautiful clean water that comes fresh from the tap, for having all the water I need to drink, cook, bathe, clean, and keep my garden going through this winter heat wave.
I am grateful for the rain, washing the sky clean of dust and smog, for the sweet smell of the rain, and for the wild music of the rain on my tin roof, and for the drama of the storm. I am grateful for the rain, for the promise of rain and for the memory of it too.
I am grateful for our river, the Bremer, that despite being clogged with rubble and debris and silt from reckless developers and harried farmers, she keeps flowing, serene to the sea. I am grateful for her beauty, and for the breezes she cools.
And I am grateful for the seas, the wild oceans, our wild mother oceans which nurtured all life… may they never be tamed! And I am grateful for the slap and sting of salt water on my bare skin which reminds me that I am here now and I’d best pay attention.
I am grateful for water today.
swim
in deep water, a silent stone –
and the songs of fishes
evening thunder
thunder before dawn
the ocean inside of me
There is an ocean inside of me
Breathe in
and out
Hear the gentle waves wash over sand and shells and smooth-ed stone let the waves break long and slow from one end of the vast horizon to the other
Breathe in
and out
This ocean has existed for a million thousand billion years and reaches to eternity
Breathe
Listen to the ocean
I am standing in the train with someone’s briefcase pressing into my back waiting in a phone queue to discuss a payment that bounced sitting waiting for a job interview
And I listen to the ocean inside of me
The only thing that’s real.
Is this the Library? 