Writing Contest for Community College Students
— First Place: Poetry
Ocean
by Timothy Schrick
(Clackamas Community College)
You allow us to ride you at our own peril, as
we harvest your bounty and in turn become the
harvested. Your floor is a graveyard littered with
our puny shapes, twisted hulks and bleached bones.
You are the Black in the darkest night. Songs drift
up from the depths, whale's lament so haunting
plays our heart strings, a cello concerto for
the ages, each note a call to beings lost
for all eternity in a fathomless void.
You are the Grey in the French uniforms,
hosts of dead in the fallow Flanders soil,
a mist of souls waiting for the sun to burn them
away, only to rise again with the next revolution
of this tiny orb, Earth.
You are the Green in the sea grass on the
shores of our souls. A blanket of life to lie
upon and ponder a woman's smile, cool caress
against bare feet, supple blades spring back,
to greet the next passenger to linger
on waves of indolence.
You are the Blue in the marble. Stars
look back at each other, the only movement a
gentle swell, the rise of a woman's breast
as she breathes in the salty tang of creation
only she can smell.
You are the tempest. Storms brewing on far
horizons, hurtling down on us with savage fury,
a reminder of elements beyond our control.
Only Gods need not fear you, for you hold the key,
and Your thunder carries the sound of birth.
You surround us always, reminding us that we
are only temporary riders. Your sound gentles
our restless souls, gazing at distant images only
our minds' eye can see. Siren songs draw us ever
back to you. We are of you and you are of us,
endless rhythms, moving, never still, Water, Life.
