Starfish

 

In the sea rocks,

in the stone pockets

under the tide’s lip,

in water dense as blindness

 

they slid

like sponges,

like too many thumbs.

I knew this, and what I wanted

 

was to draw my hands back

from the water – what I wanted

was to be willing

to be afraid.

 

But I stayed there,

I crouched on the stone wall

while the sea poured its harsh song

through the sluices,

 

while I waited for the gritty lightning

of their touch, while I stared

down through the tide’s leaving

where sometimes I could see them –

 

their stubborn flesh

lounging on my knuckles.

What good does it do

to lie all day in the sun

 

loving what is easy?

It never grew easy,

but at last I grew peaceful:

all summer

 

my fear diminished

as they bloomed through the water

like flowers, like flecks

of an uncertain dream,

 

while I lay on the rocks, reaching

into the darkness, learning

little by little to love

our only world.

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(Dream Work)