Departure

I embark
on this first shoreless summer,
an expanse without bound--
no certainty of land,
of sand on which to disembark,
to moor and stand
against the current.

Perhaps the ocean is all
and land an illusion--a memory
to which I will not return.

My summers have yet been journeys bounded
by departure and destination--
yearly migrations
steered by stars, sun--
seasonal voyages on known oceans.

Perhaps the ocean is all
and enough--a love
of motion, the rhythm
of tide and current.
I shall learn to steer,
pointing my prow to the horizon,
fixing my position by the stars.

Some can read the sea
only when it speaks of land--
in bird flight
and the current's curve
around some promontory--
shorebound, always
returning to stand on solid ground.

Can the sea speak also of itself?
I shall learn to read
ocean as ocean alone
deep and inhabited,
to hear the plaintive speech of whales,
see in empty miles of water
minute crystals alive in each clear drop,
feel the air shift
over drifting masses of heat,
the wind rise, invoking a storm.

If the ocean is all,
let me earn my legs
looking not for shore
but forward, beyond summer
to the expanse of seasons
and of seas, without fear.

by Kelly Vaughan
April/May 2000

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Original Poems by Kelly Vaughan