A 1,000 RAINBOWS, ROCKS AND PROCESS

On a rock amongst rocks

When the last rays fire
after which all will be still and ashed
Here, on this rock I wish to stand
to see the end of time.

From here you face due South;
face the end of the world, but
between you and then blue-grey barrels roll
toward the shore where

rocks cut the spring tide foam
into a thousand fragment sprays;
rainbows caught because
I have watched today.

—

The above poem was worked from the following notes, taken in early 2012 while I was enjoying the sanctity of Betty’s Bay. Betty’s, as it is affectionately known, is a small holiday town on South Africa’s southern coastline:

Today I stood on a rock amongst rocks worn flat by time and watched the spring tide. The powerful blue-grey sea rolled towards the shore and crashed against the sharper rocks ahead. The white foam sprayed a thousand fragments into the air and at that angle the sun caught the water droplets in perfect rainbows. Here, on this beach, I wish to see the end of time.

—

If you enjoyed the above, preview more of my poetry in my first published volume SHINING IN BRIGHTNESS: Selected Poems, 1999 – 2012.

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Image credit: “Wanderer Over a Sea of Fog,” (1817 – 1818), Caspar David Friedrich, oil on canvas, 94.8 x 74.8 cm, Collection: Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany.