#Poetry Friday - Seeing Is Believing

 

  Poetry Friday is with Dave, hosting PF for the first time! You can find him HERE at Leap of Dave. He's written a funny etheree about internet ads and taken us all on a lovely bike hike, "finding castles". Thanks for hosting, Dave.  

  

   I'm remembering more about our trip to Costa Rica, finding a way to share the ocean beauty at this particular place we landed and also that thing that was not beauty. I've been to ocean shores many times and have sailed on large ships yet rarely (except on those ships) have I seen such powerful, enormous waves. We loved them and were careful to take care of ourselves lest they sweep us away.

    One thing that reminded me of an Oregon coast trip was the incredible amount of driftwood brought onto the beach. Here's one picture. Some days, huge logs arrived on the incoming tide only to disappear with the outgoing sweep. We spent some time imagining what we might create if we had access (at home) to those beautiful wood pieces. 

    

              However, strewn within the wood was a lot of trash, washed up from who knows where. We found no names. Our discoveries started with a tire, which we filled the middle of day by day. I did not take a picture.

                   Sadly More Than a Drop

               Old tire, riding the waves,

               wandering across a divide

               joined our vacation.

               Between the nightly roaring lullaby

               and the kick at the body while we swam,

               you rode the amusement park ride

               called the sea.

               Your inside ring became our trash can,

               filling up with the plastic that never dies:

               bottle caps, toothbrushes, pieces of broken toys,

               and the ringer of all, a small drawer.

               We carried on the task every day,

               wondering if what washed out again

               before we found it

               wandered on over to that garbage patch

               everyone keeps telling us about?

               And, we wondered if the ground-up pieces

               we couldn't see also traveled in and out, 

               or nestled into the sand, waiting to be dinner

               for the crabs and the sanderlings 

               lively on the beach?

               We can read the scientists' reports: 

               We can read their warnings.

                And back home, 

                             we can stop 

                                       plastic use,

                                                   remembering

                                                               what that tide brought 

                with the beautiful wood.

                

                But it feels

                             like only a drop

                                             in the bucket.

                                                     (Oops, in the ocean.)

       

                      Linda Baie ©