In re-reading and editing this one, I fell in love again. Ah, how one forgets the beauty of the human spirit, and the emotions to which it gives birth? I guess that’s what poetry tries to to, to somehow capture the essence of what it is to feel in such an imperfect vessel as speech…

My poetry, for me at least, is that sort of attempt to keep a little bit of what I was feeling and experiencing crystallized, a little fragment of the past I can look at to help recover the deeper and fuller range of associated emotions stored within my head. If it can do that for you, as well, I am doubly happy.

This poem sprang to life from a random meeting during my last vacation to Saipan. Search through my photos and you’ll see a picture of the object of my emotions. :) Surprisingly enough, we still e-mail each other every once in a while…

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Ocean Dream

Copyright © 2003

Last night,
I dreamt you were in my arms,
for a moment that stretched to infinity.
We fell into that instant,
as if into a nebulous black hole,
the world hopelessly spinning,
everything echoes of chaos…But what echoes!
The repeating rolling rumble
of the Pacific wearing at the sand;
the whispering rustle of palm leaves
waving in the wind;
the nearly audible,
sparkling symphony of stars,
calmly beaming from the heavens,
yet playing with carefree abandon
in the rippling mirror below.

As we lay there, I looked;
and lost myself
in the kaleidoscopic depths
of your joyful eyes,
which held an energy,
a vibrancy of life,
to pale the scintillating stars
reflected there.
I laughed out loud, marvelling,
hoping one day to find
half as much spirit
within my simple frame.

My lips brushed yours,
soft! soft!
and upon them I tasted
the salty sea
and the sweetness of you…

At that touch, a new hunger
sprang to life within my breast.
Memories flooded my mind…
memories of love, lust, and joy;
of hunt and evasion, strike and parry,
success and failure, glee and despair…
memories of a game played,
not to win or lose
but to play…
My own recollections, long forgotten? Ha!
Memories older than time…

And then, with a laugh, you twist your face away,
and those wild thoughts
rippled out into the stormy echoes, spinning
from the still eye shrouding us like a cocoon.

From that calm centre, I listened
and heard the soft tide
of your breathing
its rhythm matched to the ebb and flow
of the ocean’s waves;
The warm breeze of your breath
played across my cheek;
like the comforting heat of your supple body…
they thawed my soul,
freeing energy and emotions
long locked behind an icy facade…
and I knew I had found
if but for an infinite moment
something akin to heaven.