it’s not red, but this is the red sea on the shore of jeddah, saudi arabia. photography by ssj

is the wave
that creates the wave
that creates the wave
that creates the wave
that reaches my feet
the same wave
that reaches my feet?

is the wind
that blows the wind
that blows the wind
that blows the wind
upon my face
the same wind
upon my face?

is the question
that asks the question
that asks the question
that asks the question
in my head
the same question
in my head?

is the feeling
that feeds the feeling 
that feeds the feeling 
that feeds the feeling 
that fills my heart 
the same feeling 
that fills my heart?

-© 2008 ssj
last updated: dec. 2022

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Author’s note: This poem, ‘wavy, windy, quest’ is one of my favorites among a collection of poems about the sea that I posted in an old blog tocastasparkle.blogspot.com.  I had written those poems from mid-2008 to early 2009 under the pen names of alia.tocastaparkle and qalbin.tocastasparkle, depending on whether I was in touch with the softness of the sea or its roughness at the time of their writing.  I got too busy with other things later in 2009 and neglected to further develop the blog. When sometime in 2012, I went back to try to maintain it, I found that I could not access it anymore even though the blog remains online.  So I moved them over to poetry.com where, for a while, I added a few other materials, before again losing interest and abandoning the site at poetry.com.

Now you understand why I prefer to be described as a part-time writer.

So you may wonder: then why now, again, at wordpress.com? Well, the waves have an enduring way of coming back , again and again. Even though it may seem that a wave has surrendered, even perished, on the shore, and the next onrushing one is a different wave.

You see, the sea has never left.  That part-time writer remains a writer, and is still on a quest.