[Poetry Friday] Sea Change (Another Rachel Carson poem)

Last Friday, I shared a poem I wrote about Rachel Carson. That poem appeared in Cricket Magazine. Today, I’m sharing the second Rachel Carson poem I wrote (this is when I was working on poems for Dare to Dream).

I always knew that a time hook was great for articles, but it helps with poetry, too. Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring was published 50 years ago this month, and that definitely was key to getting both of these poems published so quickly!

This epistolary poem appeared on YourDailyPoem.com yesterday. I love that site and its daily e-mails, and I’m thrilled to have this poem there. It’s my second poem on YDP, and I hope there will be more to come! If you have a moment to visit and comment on it there, I would be grateful:>)

Sea Change  (for Rachel Carson)

Dear Ocean,
Everyone thought we were a summer fling.
I was just 22, after all.
You were…
older.

But I knew—
I knew—
you would change my life forever.

I had always loved black cherry and hemlock trees,
deer, grouse, turtles, dirt.

And I had always loved
wooden pencil pressed into paper.
Thoughts tumbling. Watching, writing.

World. Words.
And I still do.

But they can’t compare to you:
your silver eyes,
your wavy hair,
your shimmering mackerel and
slow liquid squid.

The stars shine more brilliantly when
I’m with you.
Please don’t slip through my fingers and
disappear.

I’ll fight for you, ocean,
my whole life.

Your Admirer,
Rachel Carson

Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat has the Poetry Friday roundup. Add a little poetry to your day!