Uncaging Oceans (or, Waiting on a Poem)

Let it steal your breath

Let it stir your soul

Let it sweep in sweet surprise

Like oceans that roll

Through shorelines of skin

Where no one can see

Glimmers glance and dance and spin

Into poetry

Let it lilt and waft

Soft as falling snow

Let it be a fist-a-cuff

Hold it, let it go

Let it beg and brood

Stubborn as can be

Until it beckons thought-blood

Into poetry

Let it lure and wink

Let it grip despair

With a tender twist of ink/think

Transform it to prayer

Let it take the lead

Do not rush its sea

Until caged oceans are freed

Into poetry

Let it wash the room

With a brush of sighs

Darling, none can haste the bloom

Till the bud complies

Till whispers withheld 

Yield their mystery

And the murmur of waves meld

Into poetry

Let it test the vest

Of faith's fortitude

Let it storm the mortal breast

Wild and unsubdued

Let it crash and burn

Suffer patiently

Sometimes dust and ash will turn

Into poetry

Let it scale the sky

Dangle from the moon

Tremble like a butterfly

Freed from its cocoon

Let it vex the vim

Of hope, poised to be

A shimmer of stars that brim

Into poetry

Let it move the earth

Though nobody hears

A poem is its own worth

Without thunderous cheers 

 Fan to flame its spark

Gentle as can be 

Until it bursts through dark

Into poetry

© Janet Martin