These Waters: A Poem

                                                       Picture taken last year on the bay side of Wellfleet,MA






Nearly every summer, since childhood to the present, I have returned annually to the shores of Cape Cod spending days walking along its sandy beaches and gazing at colorful kites pirouetting across its sun drenched skies.



As my family and I make preparations to have our senses once again inundated with the exhilarating combination of salt air and invigorating waters I couldn't help but reflect  on the fact that every time I come back to this place of abundant memories I return a different person. 

One year I remember going up to that most treasured peninsula jutting out from the eastern seaboard as a child dreaming of being an astronaut. Mesmerized by the heavens I sat, wide-eyed, gazing out at the view before me stretching out into infinity. Another summer I went up as a bright eyed dreamer envisioning that I would change the world and someday ride the ocean's waves on Greenpeace rafts and save whales from being murdered.

I've returned to the beaches of Cape Cod as a new Christian in my later teen years, hymns pouring out of my heart and out across the sea, lifting my praise towards a Creator whom I recognized through Jesus. I've gone up there in the summer of my first year of college, finding love and passion in the same places where I once dug holes to make swimming pools for dolls toted along in pails. Just last summer I arose while my family still slumbered to walk where wave meets sand, my lone foot prints trekking through damp sediment. I mindfully chanted my mantra on japa mala beads as fishermen prepared for their morning ventures.

What of this year? Where do I "find" myself now? I return to the place of my childhood feeling much like a blank slate in many ways, spiritually speaking. I've pretty much abandoned any notion of dogma or doctrine, any assumption into the spiritual. This time around I am seeking only to witness the life reverberating around me in a more complete way as I practice mindfulness and simply enjoy witnessing my children explore the wonders that once thrilled me as a child. Perhaps some new insight will come, or perhaps a poem will be born or an idea to pursue when I return home. I do have a collection of books I am bringing, my journal, and my japa mala bag. Such things I can't imagine traveling without!

No matter where my heart or head is at, the one thing I love about Cape Cod is that I always feel I've come home when I return. It's as if the deepest part within me sighs, loosening up parts wound tight to open and receive a new found joy as brilliant as the sparks that seem to dance atop the waters.

Reflecting on all of this I wrote a short poem today between folding clothes and sorting socks. I hope you enjoy it. I haven't really edited it yet, so I am posted it as it is.



Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you!

These Waters

I've entered these waters with various dress
as a child of God these waves caressed
my self once ignited with passion and zeal
For a God in my heart I once held real.

I've entered a dreamer, a poet, a child-
a mother, a lover, with dreams running wild.
I've walked along where water meets shore churning white,
Reciting my mantra, my heart taking swift flight.

I've met these waters with pen in hand
Sketching out thoughts as numbered as the sands.
This time I come, my slate nearly wiped clean,
Only seeking to breathe deep these waters blue and green.

Longing to watch the seagulls circling high,
Reeds bending neath Atlantic's steady sigh
The boats drifting as boats often do
across a seascape of caerulean blue.