Cathy’s poem, TIDE BOOK is the perfect selection for the month of June in the Northwest. The lowest tides and highest tides of the year draw us to the beaches to view and experience what the ebb tide reveals about the sea bottom and then hides as the tide floods the beaches.
In several poems, Cathy’s perception of nature leads her to consider its possible meaning for her and how nature can mirror her life and also become a guide to how she can change her life.
Tim
TIDE BOOK
CATHY ROSS
We have a tide book
at our beach house,
with tables that chart
the ebb and flow of the sea.
Life is always moving too,
but its ups and downs
come at random intervals
so there isn’t any book.
Like the sea, I cycle
between times of high tide,
with waves that bring in
the foam of bright ideas,
and times of low tide
when all is swept away
in undertows of endings.
I resist these ebb times,
unwilling to accept
they are the other half
of the circle, that both the tide
and I must rise and fall.
Without them I would risk
becoming stagnant, anchored
to the past and barnacled
by certainty. I must wait
for an incoming tide to lift me
and fling me onto unfamiliar
shores, where I can make
footprints on bare sand.
Photographs by Hans Weinberg, Lee Lageschulte, Lorelie Olson & Toni Olson. Thank you!
To access Cathy’s previously published poem, RESTORATION – click here
Beautiful poem! And beautiful images to go with the heartfelt words. Thank you for this post!
Beautiful