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Grief And The Sea
A poem, a poet’s note and a poetry writing prompt
too easy to say the sea is
full of tears
when all you want is
to drown in the salt
that clogs your throat
you sit on the sand
lie down
let the sucking water
pull at your feet
your hands dig into
the fragments
of shell and glass that
tear minutely at your skin
rip your nails free
crying out here is
soundless and you cannot
compete with the roar
and hiss of a living tide
that every time
will ignore you.
Poet’s note: This poem came from watching something on TV that reminded me how in movies and shows, people overcome by deep emotion head for the beach. It’s as if the relentless power of the water reminds us that we are just like sand on the beach, or driftwood perhaps, tossed around by life.
Poetry prompt: Describing emotion in a poem can sound melodramatic or trite when you approach it “head on”. Try using something in nature — the sea, the forest, mountains, rivers, a storm etc — as the metaphor for the emotion. Choose words about the natural world to reflect the emotion rather than explain it.
