all poems and photographs
© by Maya Stein

all poems and photographs
© by Maya Stein
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Monday, November 17, 2008

immersion
























Sometimes you have to blend in or disappear,
glaze over, hide, be silent, be unremarkable, lose
the way, feel impotent, forget the point, get dirty,
trip over your tongue, overestimate your power, underestimate
your exhaustion, fall behind, not know the language,
break your stride, stub your ego,
come panting in in last place.

This morning, I couldn't help myself.
I saw the Atlantic and just leapt in.

To my left, a god slid through the waves
like a seal. To my right, a ballerina
pirouetted around ropes of seaweed.
In front and behind, a cache of children,
giddy with sun, bobbed through a line of foam,
their innocence intact.

Flapping my arms in saltwater,
I was neither the picture of achievement
nor grace.

But no one was watching.
They were all too busy
swimming.

3 comments:

Di Mackey said...

I love this ... you can't know how much I needed it.

It let me breathe deeply for a moment, and took me back to a time in New Zealand when I ran into the waves in my clothes on an impulse, startling my labrador.

Another beautiful jewel of a poem!
xo

crazymumma said...

oh you make me ache for the smell of salt air.

S.L. Corsua said...

Oh, this is so beautiful, from the title (most apt) to the ending. It makes me long for the sea, too. Makes me a bit homesick (I grew up near the coast).

I've immensely enjoyed the pace in the first stanza, slowing down in the second for the impact of the 'leap.' And the third -- a wealth of images. Cheers.