What have you seen?
It seems to me I hear
waves crashing
on a distant lonely shore.
Have you been there?
Rock bottom where despair
dredges away all sense
gnaws young bones bare?.
I've been there too.
In simple terms, wit's end.
No passage back they say,
no way beyond that final ebb of feeling,
barren strand.
A pebbly plain, no footholds,
sinking sand.
But some return. Will you?
Some dare to ride
uncertain surge of sorrow,
brave the tide
of love, of loss.
They trust the swell revives them,
risk the wash of fate unfathomed, weather
wild waters' toss
It can be done.
Unfurl your sodden sails,
come home again.
We'll bear your briny tales.
Sea stories,
salt-starred yarns
rend pain to pearl
Look up,
clouds still wheel by
the breakers bend
a gull flies high.
We will survive a while
and what we'll learn is how
and here's my hand for now.
