Seven Degrees of Seas

In 2000AD I was a participant on the Roger Waters Bulletin Board who had folks from all over the world. One of my good friends there was from Austin Texas and had never seen the sea.  The next week I was doing MCM duties out of Lyttelton and we had four seasons in one day.  I had some time to kill so penned the following poem - Seven Degrees of Sea.  Feel free to share if you know someone in the same boat.

Seven Degrees of Sea

1° Beauty

Look around, nary a sound.

Twinkling, sparkling millpond.

Light dancing, no breath of wind,

paradise before you.

Deep blue mirrors sky’s hue,

clarity supreme!

See bullet-like fish

dart and dash

for metres and leagues down.

2° Paradise mottled

Wind breaks the calm of sea’s balm,

yet still no harm.

Little ripples do break the serenity.

Still paradise,

not quite as nice but panorama

is churned, grayish tint.

The blue is less clear,

fish not there.

3° Paradise broken

Grey clouds whipped by strongish gusts,

waves rolling,

whitecaps strolling incessantly.

Blue turns to dark green,

picture once serene,

now crazy with churning spume.

Clarity lost, murky water.

Thoughts darkened by the haze.

Cloudy, wind-filled days.

4° Crestfallen

Swells building, waves breaking, CRASH.

Wind whips water,

mad dashes across the surface.

Black, roiling cloudbanks close the gloom,

leave no room

for the fainthearted, motion started.

Sea boiling green and white

as stomach fights the crests and troughs.

Battle soon lost.

5° Gut wrenching

Death is near, no ocean clear.

Lunch is sent spewing,

misery ensuing

as clouds now speed across your vision.

Gales, high wind precision.

Swells stand up and confront

the fear of your dread.

White anger, grey green broth,

merciless ocean whipped to froth.

6° Passion play

For as far as the maddening eye sees,

unrelenting danger

assails the stranger to the power of the sea.

Clouds one big procession,

wind obsession, your life at the mercy

of powers far greater,

and sooner or later the boat will sway

and rock and toss, and moronically ride

out the ocean’s passion play.

7° Natural forces

You ride the dancing horses, on forces

not meant to be.

No one conquers the sea,

but feel its power and its serenity.

Be it paradise, or majestic glory,

take from it what you must.

Revile it, revel in its touch,

it will treat you, nature’s power,

as it wishes, by seven degrees, the seas.