Tidewritten
a poem about struggle, strength, and the hope for understanding
Are you proud of the girl
who took across the ocean,
fighting the colossal waves
as they broke against her raft?
Thrust into the depth, over and over,
she survived only to be drowned again.
Swimming, floating, carried
by the turbulent currents,
she reached a shore so far
it’s not on any map.
Her letters back to you
are kissed by sea foam,
salty envelopes adorned with iridescent shells.
When her words reach your familiar lands,
maybe the script is blurry,
maybe you don’t understand
the language she speaks anymore.
But can you be proud of her achievements?
Her perilous journey —
I’m sure a long time ago
before life was comfortable,
you, too, have made one yourself.
This poem came to me in a dream.
A woman standing atop a rocky outcrop by the ocean, staring at an endlessly blue horizon. Somehow, I knew that she had sailed across it, and that she’s not planning to ever go back.
The dream faded, but the poem remained.
It left me with a lot of thoughts and feelings about perseverance, but also about what we leave behind when we grow. If it’s people, it’s easy for them to misunderstand or judge us when we grow in a different direction, especially if there are values that clash.
Although we all have our own struggles, it’s not obvious that we would understand the struggles of someone else. Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we had the space in our hearts to at least accept?
To acknowledge. Even if we don’t fully understand.
Wouldn’t it make a path, even if walked alone, a little less lonely in the end?
