Awakening Poem by Bill Galvin

I see the sky take on a light glow…
I feel the sand beneath my feet…
(No need to look back, I know the tracks I leave) .

A gull meanders above the water…
The white of the waves rolls up to me
To gently kiss me,
Then washes back again.
Your flow is my flow, water.
We flow oblivious to time; we wash eternally.
We wash eternally.

Wispy morning clouds arrive for the occasion…
I feel their soft caress as they blanket the coolness.

I am invited by one and all…
The sea, the sand, the sky…
To notice some newness,
To smile from nearness.
The sky is on the earth; the earth is in the sky;
The sea flows to each…
They are interchangeable…
One for the other…
Each equally splendid, beautiful…
Can one love one more than the other?

And on,
They complete one another.

Yesterday's heavy rain has mottled
The dune sand as yet unwalked upon…
Two hundred yards separates ocean from river here,
There are periwinkles on the river rocks
And marsh grass up the beach dunes…
Bobwhites and whippoorwills and gulls
Interplay harmoniously…
The river silently soothes me;
Fishes jump and dance across the smoothness.
Hello! You know (yes you do) that I am
Not here to put you in my frying pan!
I am surrounded by naturalness!
I am part of it!
I know my goosebumps are not from chill.

The sky is brighter now…
Smile with me, new day sun, smile with me…
I understand your purpose…
You are part of that harmony…
Beauty, love, truth.

And on,
They complete one another…
Nothing without each…
New day sun, I smile with you…
And I thank you for waiting.

-July 1972 Marshfield, MA