Poetry

Writing

Aging | Identity | Mindfulness | Nature | Travel

The Visitor | Poem

By Ammie-Marie Littke

On Wednesday, June 7, 2023 @ 8:30 pm

The shoreline of Sunset Beach, NC at dusk | "The Visitor" | Photography by Ammie-Marie Littke
The shoreline of Sunset Beach, NC at dusk | “The Visitor” | Photography by Ammie-Marie Littke

The shoreline of Sunset Beach, NC at dusk | "The Visitor" | Photography by Ammie-Marie Littke

Mountainous white sands
Smaller than the smallest sea creatures
Spread along the elastic shoreline
The ridges laden with untold stories

Tempered storms, hushed winds
Ensembles of time moored
Speckled with new life
And the remnants of death

Small burrows clustered
Where the water meets the deserted sands
Tiny creatures await the rising tide
Yearning for the chance to give life

As the sun sets in the distances
Pillows of wild, roaring waves break
Shifting like layers of shale
Cloudy like a dust storm

Above me the promise of a new dawn
Below me, a storm brews below the surface
Bubbling raging foamy suds
Cleansing the edges of the world

I walk in a straight line along her mighty edge
She greets me like an old friend
The water embracing my legs, I pause
The sands slowly shift below my feet
Succumbing to the power of the tide

The trail I walked along fades beneath her ridges
My footprints behind me are long gone
But waves from the tide are imprinted along the shore
She is monumentally mighty
Strong and brave against the sands of time

Millennium of memories below her blue currents
Reminding me that I am but a brief moment
A luck of the draw in the galaxies of stardust
More special than any pearl
Less precious than the grandeur of everything

The waters of the Earth are forever
And I am lucky to be encapsulated
Entertained with her
If but only for a moment
In her forever everlasting

She embraces me with such relenting need
Yearning for me to explore
Her collection of blue hues
Eager for me to become a forgotten treasure
In her forbidden cove
Strumming my hair as she beckons me to the depths

Nothing lasts forever
For everything that I do
Can and will be undone
For everything that I am
Can and will be nothing
So, I might as well enjoy myself
And have fun

The mighty ocean
She bears the weight of my secrets
Entrusting her with my only legacy
In an ever-changing world
I unburden memories onto her
I let them go

ABOUT THIS WORK

I spent an afternoon walking along the coastal shoreline of the Carolinas.

The sunset dipped below the surface of the Earth, illuminating the night sky in galaxies, planets, and a vibrant white moon.

As I walked along the shoreline, I noticed how my footprints faded under the soft waves moving along the sands.

It made me realize how small I was in the grand scale of a vast ocean. How minuscule my presence was against the seemingly infinite waters.

I was all but erased in the moments that followed behind. I realized how small every problem could be. How truly remarkable it was that I existed in that moment at all. How unlikely it would be that I would ever exist in that moment again.

What a wonderful world...

Ammie-Marie
Ammie-Marie Littke

Hey! I'm Ammie-Marie.

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