“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
― William James
We are rock climbing
gently, like the ancient
goats we have become.
We mince across
the slabs of grey slate
and white granite.
“Watch out for the
gravel, it’s slippery,”
a stranger tells us.
We pay heed
and keep on
walking gingerly.
The rock formations
soar jaggedly
above the Atlantic.
We don’t go
Down we go
across
the uppermost
edges stopping
to look below
at the clear, grey-green
foaming water swirling
over and around
moss covered, natural sculptures
in inlets created by
eons of erosion.
At one point there is
A confluence in a tidal pool;
the water is coming in
and going out
simultaneously.
We are entranced
by the ancient energy.
The power to wear away
mountains of rock invigorates us.
We watch
and wonder at
how deeply we feel
the awe of our connection
to the island, the sea,
the stone and each other.
-Judith J Katz
Judith J. Katz teaches Poetry at the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School in Connecticut. She has been published in “The Muddy River Poetry Review,” “Crossing Class Anthology,” “101 Jewish Poems for the New Millenium” and “The Jewish Literary Journal.” She is a recipient of an Emily Dickensen/NEH award.