“I do not know who I am until I move closer to you”. Oh, this is one of my favorite poems of yours. I discovered the collection ‘The Sea in You’ in July 2021 — around my wife’s birthday and almost two years after she passed. I read these poems over and over that summer discovering how they bridged that what was between us when she was alive with the imaginal realm of mystery and presence in her absence. In my dreams, in my memories, in a full moon lying together on a cold winter’s night among the shadows and liminal snow pack of our forest. Thank you.
David—I’ve restacked The Sea in You as a ‘Tide Challenge’ for everyday health: morning walks as rising tides, meals as cool waves on skin, night resets on the shore of joy. Intent: reach beyond poetry lovers to help more people build better lives through it.
Inspired, I wrote a parody - hopefully it is received well:
The Storm in You
In twirling sheets like white waves, deep snoring vibrations quiver through my skin like enigmatic whale songs.
Dreaming of gale and thunder touching the reality of the fury of your sinuses, as I seekingly find pace in the erupting rhythm, connecting yet flinching, bravely hearing the walrus canon blast snorts.
Feeling my firm grasp of a pillow, like a plank afloat, I scheme escapes to far away lands in an empty ship, pressing my hands against my afflicted ears, steering away, longingly so, from the foghorn rising and falling.
The faint moonlit memory, long ago, floating in the far edges of the Sargasso sea, I feel my fingers trace the smooth, dark pearl of your skin. Exploring the curves, bones and currents of your body, with delicate breath touching warm lips, like reaching out on the edge of the boat into depths unknown.
How can I possibly live, possible love, so intensely still, as tide and ebb, no longer whispers of connection, but, now, each crescendo and wheeze, blare as glaring sounds into the very fabric of my dreams, of my body. Ear plugs, once as guardians strong, now shape-shift to arrow twisters, like Siren songs gone awry.
Through the ocean night, I swim to depths of forgetfulness, only to rise again to the eerie notes of broken horns. I lie next to you, next to you sleeping in calm waters of sea, wondering what joy on the shore of morning awaits, what saviour of quietness finally swoops down—blessed Silence enveloping her wings around me.
I love how this poem reminds me how it feels to be fully present in the pull of someone else’s life. I explore some of that same territory in my own work, and would love to share this one.
When I read your poem, it is as if a portal to the eternal vastness has opened. This poem however, gave me much internal conflicts to contemplate and hold. On one hand the sojourn I have been through reminds me how romantic love is not the holy destiny for everyone, that true belonging takes many forms. On the other hand, I want to immerse in the tenderness described in this poem to experience another life that I am constantly turning away from.
“I do not know who I am until I move closer to you”. Oh, this is one of my favorite poems of yours. I discovered the collection ‘The Sea in You’ in July 2021 — around my wife’s birthday and almost two years after she passed. I read these poems over and over that summer discovering how they bridged that what was between us when she was alive with the imaginal realm of mystery and presence in her absence. In my dreams, in my memories, in a full moon lying together on a cold winter’s night among the shadows and liminal snow pack of our forest. Thank you.
David—I’ve restacked The Sea in You as a ‘Tide Challenge’ for everyday health: morning walks as rising tides, meals as cool waves on skin, night resets on the shore of joy. Intent: reach beyond poetry lovers to help more people build better lives through it.
Thank you for sharing, such an honest refecltion of the movement of connection between two people.
I love this…I respond with grace and gratitude to share my soul’s whisper…
Love at First Sight
What is this love?
Upon waking the
blue bird sits close!
The sun peaks it
light through to
all life!
Within me upon
first seeing you
my heart smiles!
Within me is my
first Divine Love
coming alive at
First sight!
MaryLinda
Dear David,
Inspired, I wrote a parody - hopefully it is received well:
The Storm in You
In twirling sheets like white waves, deep snoring vibrations quiver through my skin like enigmatic whale songs.
Dreaming of gale and thunder touching the reality of the fury of your sinuses, as I seekingly find pace in the erupting rhythm, connecting yet flinching, bravely hearing the walrus canon blast snorts.
Feeling my firm grasp of a pillow, like a plank afloat, I scheme escapes to far away lands in an empty ship, pressing my hands against my afflicted ears, steering away, longingly so, from the foghorn rising and falling.
The faint moonlit memory, long ago, floating in the far edges of the Sargasso sea, I feel my fingers trace the smooth, dark pearl of your skin. Exploring the curves, bones and currents of your body, with delicate breath touching warm lips, like reaching out on the edge of the boat into depths unknown.
How can I possibly live, possible love, so intensely still, as tide and ebb, no longer whispers of connection, but, now, each crescendo and wheeze, blare as glaring sounds into the very fabric of my dreams, of my body. Ear plugs, once as guardians strong, now shape-shift to arrow twisters, like Siren songs gone awry.
Through the ocean night, I swim to depths of forgetfulness, only to rise again to the eerie notes of broken horns. I lie next to you, next to you sleeping in calm waters of sea, wondering what joy on the shore of morning awaits, what saviour of quietness finally swoops down—blessed Silence enveloping her wings around me.
Sublime❤️
"my arms try to hold with the wrong kind of strength and my lips try to speak with the wrong kind of love"
The idea of "wrong strength" and "wrong kind of love" threw me out of the rhythm, but I otherwise enjoyed the immersion with the moon and tides.
This poem feels like being carried by a quiet tide, where love and identity blend into something almost dreamlike.
I love how the speaker only understands who they are by moving closer to the person they love.
The moonlit imagery gives everything a soft, intimate glow, like a moment suspended outside of time.
There’s something tender in the way touch becomes a way of finding yourself as much as finding the other.
The sense of moving “half in light and half in dark” captures the mystery of deep connection.
I felt the awe in those lines about discovering someone in a place no one should be able to live or breathe.
The poem holds that mix of longing, humility, and wonder that comes with loving someone so deeply.
There’s a vulnerability in admitting you’re trying to love with the wrong kind of strength.
The ending, with rest arriving like a tide that lifts weight away, feels quietly healing.
It’s the kind of poem that leaves you calmer, as if the sea in it settled somewhere inside you.
Lovely poem, David..."and I lie next to you in your sleep as I would next to the sea." May we all enjoy such a moment when we wake beneath the moon.
I love how this poem reminds me how it feels to be fully present in the pull of someone else’s life. I explore some of that same territory in my own work, and would love to share this one.
https://substack.com/@betsyjohnsonautismwriting/note/c-203061779?r=avvav&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
So beautiful
Mmmm
so beautifullll❤️🩹♥️
When I read your poem, it is as if a portal to the eternal vastness has opened. This poem however, gave me much internal conflicts to contemplate and hold. On one hand the sojourn I have been through reminds me how romantic love is not the holy destiny for everyone, that true belonging takes many forms. On the other hand, I want to immerse in the tenderness described in this poem to experience another life that I am constantly turning away from.