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March 27 One With the Sea

PROMPT March 27th ▼

Someone shared the poem “The Trough” by Judy Brown with me today and I want to pass it on to you. I found it incredibly comforting during this time of global crisis. In your entry today, write about how the poem makes you feel, or write a poem of your own.

The Trough
Judy Brown

There is a trough in waves,
a low spot
where horizon disappears
and only sky
and water
are our company.
And there we lose our way
unless
we rest, knowing the wave will bring us
to its crest again.
There we may drown
if we let fear
hold us in its grip and shake us
side to side,
and leave us flailing, torn, disoriented.
But if we rest there
in the trough,
in silence,
being in the low part of the wave,
keeping our energy and
noticing the shape of things,
the flow,
then time alone
will bring us to another
place
where we can see
horizon, see land again,
regain our sense
of where
we are,
and where we need to swim.

Yes, in this era of social distancing, it sometimes feels like I'm in a trough unable to look forward or backward. Held in the calm, but anticipating the rush, the what-if, how long, how far? I work at gathering energy to spring forward when the crescendo arrives. In the meantime I battle the malaise in the trough.

This is a beautifully written poem that captures the disorientation, the isolation that many of us are experiencing.

one with the sea
the energy is beneath
and around me
                   jvg