the unabridged
Oxford English Dictionary
has over
four-hundred thousand
words in it.
so there must be a word
for what it does to you
when you see the particular color of blue -
when you get far enough
away from land -
in which the ocean is painted.
and there must be a word
for what it’s like
to look fore and aft
and see nothing
but water and sky
and be struck all at once
by the grandeur
of all creation
and feel embraced by it.
probably those words are in there
somewhere,
if one knew where to look.
or a word for what happens
when night falls
and the horizon
becomes blurred
and the sky falls
into the sea,
and the sea becomes one
with the sky.
what a poem could be written with
words such as those.
if one knew where to look.
for there must be words that
describe all this. and one in particular
that describes the feeling
you have when you’re back home
and you come to realize
you have left
a piece
of your soul
behind.