Notes About The Poem
7/17/2010
For Mark Toney's 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 24 Poetry Contest
Breaking the Surface
A millstone around my neck and weight about my feet
drag me down so deeply
that I’m being pulled toward something. . .
something from a darkened dream - nihility -
the place to lose chagrin
and then to taste absolutely nothing.
Tropical delights do not swim here
to brighten the dingy water of my plight.
No rainbow fish dart to and fro where murky disillusionment oozes
all around and through me.
I go lower. . . .
But above me, I can barely see a tinge of rose and of blue,
a sparkling distant light as the void below crouches,
tugging at my soul.
Hope, through ocean’s skin,
peeps down at me.
Rays of reassurance come gleaming through
the layers of my gloom’s descent,
and be it from God. . . or from simple human will,
Prospect calls to me.
I feel wonder as gravity relinquishes its hold,
and the restraints around my ankles now fall off!
The millstone is released. Unencumbered, I ascend.
Up, up, up I go -
bursting to exhale and to take into my lungs
a refreshment of sweet oxygen.
A final surge of spirit . ..
and I’m breaking the surface.
The coral glow of breaking day rushes forth splendidly
to greet me.
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