"Blue" by my daughter Sammi, 13 years

Blue

I stood at the edge of the ocean, staring miles down the never-ending beach. I couldn't help but think about everything this beach, this ocean, had been through. It had been through heartbreaks, lost and found friends, cried tears of happiness and sorrow. It has been so confused by life that it gives up and tries not to live it.

The warm, crystal clear water touched my feet one last time. Why couldn't it stay; stay at me at this time - if it all went still - and let me talk to it, ask it more questions a while longer before leaving?

I bet she has made friends and had to leave them. Maybe they were best friends but the waves' force tore them apart. Maybe the friends had been trying to find each other, fighting against the current just to be with their friends, wanting nothing more than to make the ocean stand still so they could catch up with each other. They try telling the ambitious current to stop, just for a while, but it refuses and tenaciously keeps going.

The wind glanced over the treetops and skimmed over the water, tossing it slowly. The clouds seemed to be whistling towards me, soft whispers came from dying fires behind me.

The blue lighthouse shone safely over the ocean for anyone who has lost their way. I feel like I could dive in the ocean and be with it forever, never leaving, staying close and communicating endlessly, watching the world passing by. It sees every storm come and go, not having to be a part of it.

The perfect world is in that ocean.

"Come," the wind started to whisper.

"Jump in, " the clouds increasingly chanted.

The sky turned charcoal grey as if trying to tell me to go in also.

Cracks of lightning flicker across the sky, cheering me on. Thunder roared relentlessly.

I smiled, my worries fading, forgetting them slowly. I realized I must fulfill what I know I came here to do.

We (declaration/prose)

WE

We

(the trees, bees, fleas, stones and bleached bones; the stars, fish, starfish, eagles, beagles, seagulls, virus, papyrus and platypus; the deadheads, meth-heads, skin heads, redheads, tow-heads, reds, terrorists, patriots, pigeons, rats, politicians, polygamists, pagans, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and those that think and look like they fell from the sky; the red rocks, white cliffs, blue sky, yellow gold, green algae, orange orange, black tar and Portland January grey; the blessed air we breathe and the clean water we need; the salmon and seals, frogs and green fields; the firelight, starlight, moonlight, sunlight and dark night; the ‘coons, baboons, loons, eternal Saharan dunes and every other thing, non-thing and unknown corporeal being that you can or can’t name…)

are
all
One.

--Eric Marley

June 2013

      

Compassion - Poem

Compassion

The struggling fly

Knows all too well
The dangers of
The web.

 --Eric Marley

December 2012