I Don't Just Want To Read About The Ocean + other poems

3 poems about being in process

Photo by Kinø on Unsplash

I Don’t Just Want To Read About The Ocean

I want to experience its rushing tide, foaming, 
reaching toward my bare feet. I want to breathe 
in its damp cool air, squint against the infinite 
points of reflection, marvel at the way it forms 
the horizon. I want to taste its salt on my lips, 
feel the weight of it against my skin as it carries 
my body with ease. I want to sit at its shore, 
my senses consumed, my busy mind captivated
by its roar, awake and alive with wonder.
 
In the same way, I don’t just want to read about 
God. I want to believe that every cell in my body
is a reflection of Him. That my heart already knows 
His love. That my senses are already attuned to 
the goodness of His character. I want to settle in, 
resting in the truth that all I need to do is become 
still enough to listen, to feel, to notice how He is 
guiding me through the rush of this life, steady and
strong like the tide, leading me always home.

On Becoming

Can you stand
in the middle of
your womanhood,
tethered
to what you cannot change,
bound
to your hopes 
for tomorrow?

Can you breathe here,
trusting
this moment,
this day
to lead you forward—
trusting God 
with the person you are 
becoming?

Like Water

Like water, you never stop 
      moving, searching, filling 
          the spaces inside our thirsty 

          souls, again and again, until 
     we finally stop trying to drink 
from a dry source—an empty cup.

Until we wrench our hearts open 
          to receive the goodness 
                we fought to believe in—

                goodness in abundance. 
           Like water, you are constant,
   you saturate our unbelief,

    you shape us [gradually] 
            into the people you created 
                      us to be.