Storm: Two Voices – Corrected Version

Two of the verses were missing from the original version. This is the whole and complete guest poem by Karen Locke. Enjoy!

Storm: Two Voices

by Karen Locke

Sand beguiling,
curious roughness on our feet;
soft waves, the ocean plays against the sand.
We also play! We run, we laugh,
we build sandcastles that the gentle waves wash down.
The very best of places to be
is on the sand.

But skies grow dark,
a bit of rain, a bit of wind, ever more intense,
gentle waves are getting just a bit…
not really gentle anymore
and there’s a knock on the door; the message is
evacuate.

Oho! But the sand laughs,
I will dance!
I will wash to sea and wash to shore
and bounce and shift without a pattern.
Water is my partner in the dance;
oh joy to dance!

I am free;
free from human will for once, free to dance,
to come ashore, or
forget the shore and seek the greater sea.
The things you planted on me, humans
wood and concrete holding me,
I am now free from them and I can dance!
We wait.
The storm has passed, the days have passed,
and now we can go back
to our house, to our sand, our sandcastles on the shore.
But…

They are no more, our house, our sand.
They’ve gone elsewhere; the wind and rain
have taken them.
But we’ll rebuild;
the new house will be our house,
the new sand will be our sand,
we will run, we will laugh,
we will build sandcastles that the gentle waves will wash down.

I am tired, admits the sand.
I will sleep awhile,
until the water comes.
Then I will dance, dance again.

Sandy beach at Lincoln City, Oregon. Image courtesy Dana Hunter.

Sandy beach at Lincoln City, Oregon. Image courtesy Dana Hunter.
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Storm: Two Voices – Corrected Version
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2 thoughts on “Storm: Two Voices – Corrected Version

  1. rq
    2

    Still good. :) Better, actually, as complete things usually are!
    (I did like the hanging ‘but…’ on the other inadvertent version, though. Had a nice apprehensiveness about it.)

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