Starfish

I wrote this poem a while ago after a particularly hard season. We got difficult news and I went to the ocean to wrestle with it all. I collapsed at the side of tide and saw a purple starfish clinging to a rock.

Maybe you are going through one hard thing after another and instead of finding peace, hard things keep on coming…I share this poem for you.

I am a starfish

clinging to a rock.

Wave after wave washes over me.

Back and forth, day after day...

They never stop.

Oh, for a quiet pool

where there are no waves.

A place where I can be left alone.

Somewhere I can finally rest.

When will I find peace?

Instead of peace, a hurricane.

Waves tear at my back

like a raging snarling beast.

I feel my grip slipping from the rock.

I want to let go.

I hear a voice, clear as the day,

“I am your refuge in the storm.”

The waves still roar; but the sounds fade away,

Whoosh, Whoosh… whoosh….

Peace at last.

I search desperately for the voice;

in the vast sea, in the distant sky above.

But no… the voice is close, close to my heart.

It is the voice of the Rock

I have been clinging to all along.

I am a starfish

clinging to my Rock.

I will not let go.

photo credit: Rafael Garcin@nimbus_vulpis