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Searching my heart for its true sorrow,
This is the thing I find to be:
That I am weary of words and people,
Sick of the city, wanting the sea.
Imagine, if you will, that I am speaking to you in a language you understand. Hear me in the waves lapping upon the shore. Hold a seashell to your ear ~ close your eyes and listen for I will be there. I am all water on this Earth. You call me many names ~ oceans, seas, rivers and lakes; ponds and streams and brooks. The name matters not, all water ~ even rain… even ice ~ is me. I run through your body and the bodies of all creatures and growing things. I am everywhere there is life.
Wanting the sticky, salty sweetness
Of the strong wind and shattered spray;
Wanting the loud sound and the soft sound
Of the big surf that breaks all day.
You ask how can this be? That I am everywhere… the depth and breadth of my mighty oceans is greater than you can imagine. The wind assists me in my travels. The moon carries me back and forth upon the shores. The force you call gravity draws the rain from the clouds back to my breast. The rivers run to me ~ their divine being. I am a force above all others. I can be gentle and life-giving or I can be cruel and terrifying. I am.
Always I climbed the wave at morning,
Shook the sand from my shoes at night,
That now am caught beneath great buildings,
Stricken with noise, confused with light.
As I run through you, so I call to you. Atop the highest mountain, amid the driest desert, in the heat or in the cold, in the dark of night or light of day ~ always I call to you. Your need for me is deep within the race-memories of your cells. I was here for millions of years before life was formed in the dark of my belly. Tiny amoebas, bacteria, algae, plants, fish, reptiles. Eventually some bored of me and crawled out upon the land and breathed the air and forgot where they were birthed. But, always, I remain a part of you.
If I could see the weedy mussels
Crusting the wrecked and rotting hulls,
Hear once again the hungry crying
Overhead, of the wheeling gulls.
You cannot live without me. Nothing can live without me. I do not say this pridefully, it is simply fact. Whether you are a creature of the land, the sea or the air; you must have water to survive. And I must have you to feel complete. Though there are innumerable differences between us, there are also molecules that we share. You may think I do not live but how can you say I am not alive when every living being is made in part by the mystical, magical molecules that form me? Life came from within me no matter what your form. Call it what you will ~ science, creation, magic or miracle.
I should be happy, — that was happy
All day long on the coast of Maine!
I have a need to hold and handle
Shells and anchors and ships again!
I shall tell you what I think then you decide… I remain a part of you. I call to your very soul from every tide… every wave… every drop of rain. Because we all have the divine spark within us that connects us throughout time and space. I gave birth to you and gifted you with a part of me. We cannot escape one another. I do not wish to part from you and I don’t believe you wish to part from me. We are. And we are blessed.
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the form { i hope } is a type of prose-poetry, interspersing the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay through my prose, or story-telling. many thanks to Anna Montgomery for her prompt at dVerse ~ Poets Pub. i also wish to thank Julie at We Write Poems for her prompt to write a persona poem, from the point of view of someone or something other than myself.
i used some, but not all, of Edna St. Vincents’ poem “Exiled” which you can read in its entirety HERE. there is also a bio HERE.
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image ~ “Rime of the sea” TempestasRex on deviantART
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originally posted 5 October 2012
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prompted by ~
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Meeting the Bar: Postmodern (Prose) at dVerse ~ Poets Pub
prompt: write a prose-poem or incorporate passages of prose into your poem
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Prompt #126 Your Masquerade Party at We Write Poems
prompt: write a persona poem, also called mask poems. { they are written from a perspective other than one’s own. Whether it’s a friend, enemy, relative, pet, inanimate object, historical figure or someone completely fictionalized, think and write as if you were the other character, bringing them to life and capturing their world. Wearing their “costume” gives you permission to step out of your comfort zone and change your style, tone and perspective. }
thank you, Julie!
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