Every night when I go to bed I turn on my ocean sounds, listening to the surf as I fall asleep. For several years I used a bedside alarm clock that played different nature sounds; now, of course, there’s an app for that. I need the white noise and find it very difficult to rest without it. Lying there in a silent house, listening for the smallest bump or squeak, is too much like when I was young and waited for the monsters under my bed or in my closet to get me. Maybe I’m still a bit afraid they’re lurking and magically, the sound somehow keeps them at bay.

The poem below arrived as I was fading off last night, listening to the ocean as always. It’s kind of surprising to me that I never wrote one quite like it before, being under the influence of it’s sound every night. I roused myself a bit and typed it down into Notes on my phone, the same source of soothing noise that kept playing on and on as I wrote.

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lost at sea

swimming in the sea
learning the ocean
has no end, no edge
no boundaries
none the eye can see
below live mountains
and deep dark valleys
far away continents
close in, stop the spread
they are lost on me
around me now instead
endless lapping waves
stretching out, away
to the distant horizon
no compass point
or stars in the night sky
guiding me on to shore
floating here, waiting
hoping the tide alone
can carry me home