Ocean Dream
I dreamed
we were swimming in the ocean,
and the whole surface of the water
was a jigsaw puzzle,
blues and whites fitted together
and floating around us.
You said you’d done it,
turned the ocean into a puzzle,
because you were sad.
In the dream
that made perfect sense to me.
Sapphire, navy, turquoise,
each piece carefully connected,
each just where it belonged,
bobbing on top of the waves.
The ocean:
Controlled, flattened, finished.
Solved.
“Brilliant,” I told you,
and you looked around
at what you’d accomplished.
But under the pieces,
the waves still moved restlessly,
and you,
treading water next to me,
still seemed sad.
Ruth, from thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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3 hours ago
12 comments:
Ruth this is so beautiful. I love the metaphor of puzzle - -how unexpected an image for ocean! And the sadness... it touches me. Thank you for sharing! xo
Oh, Ruth....this is an exceptionally well crafted poem...with the blues of sadness fitting together. The writer observing the puzzle maker struggling. I agree with Irene that the image is unexpected but like in the dream, it makes perfect sense. This is a keeper!
What a lovely, haunting poem. The ocean as a puzzle-seemingly solved but still ever-changing. So true of many things.
Haunting and mysterious, very interesting use of the puzzle as metaphor. The blues of sadness. Wonderful.
Autism's symbol is a puzzle piece, and somehow I was thinking of that. How we each puzzle out the world and where we fit into it. Where grief fits into our idea of the world. Very beautiful poem.
This is great, Ruth.
The ocean as a puzzle--that's so intriguing. And I love the line, "In the dream that made perfect sense to me." Isn't that so often the case with the puzzle of a dreaming?
"Exceptionally well crafted" is right. Wow. So very original, and yet immediately familiar to the heart.
Oh my, this is magical and, as Kay said, haunting. It reminds me of Psalm 42:6: "Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; / All your waves and billows have gone over me."
When reading your poem, I can't help but think about all the turbulent waters that have turned in the last few weeks of hurricanes.Your poem has a very surreal feeling to it, while the puzzle is complete the problem still stirs beneath the surface–beautiful melancholic poem, thanks.
Everything the others have said before me, and also: I just finally read *Because of Winn Dixie,* with its candy holding the taste of sorrow, and your poem takes that in; and I also have been learning about Transcendental Meditation, in which an ocean metaphor is used to describe the nature of the mind, and your poem also takes that in.
Thank you for this beautifully made dream of a poem and for its connections.
I find this poem so beautiful and magical and heartbreaking. It will haunt me, and I am grateful for that. Thank you, Ruth. Peace. x
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