Year Five Classroom: Thoughts Like an Ocean

The sea comes to me on the shore

On lacy slippered feet

And shyly, slyly slides away

With a murmur of defeat.

 

And as I stand there wondering

Strange thoughts spin round my head

Of why and where and what and when

And if not, why, what then?

 

Where do lobsters come from?

And where anemones?

And are there other worlds out there

With other mysteries?

 

Why do I walk upon dry land

While fishes haunt the sea?

And as I think about their lives

Do they too think of me?

 

Why is water, water?

Why does it wet my hand?

Are there really as many stars

As there are grains of sand?

 

And where would the ocean go to

If there was no gravity?

And where was I before I lived?

And where’s eternity?

 

Perhaps the beach I’m standing on

Perhaps this stretch of sand

Perhaps the Universe itself

Lies on someone else’s hand?

 

And isn’t it strange how this water and I

At this moment happened to meet

And how this tide sweeps half the world

Before stopping at my feet.

 

Gareth Owen