Neaps and springs

For ten days
I lived a mere stone's skipping from the salted sea.

I slept to it's murmuring,
woke to it's gulls crying,
And watched it's tides rise and fall.

Gently it caught me in it's rhythms.
Waves lullabied my sleep by night and
By day I counted time by tides.

Like a growing self consciousness
I became aware
Of the moon's slow dancing through the days and nights,
Spinning out and in from full to crescent,
Crescent to full,
While the wide waters surged and sighed
Like a slow drum beating.

I began to measure my life by the rise and fall of the ocean's breath.
Highs and lows, neaps and springs
Gave a finer audit of my days than the cruder count of seasons.

Even now, when my cluttered thoughts clamour for attention
And a long tangle of responsibilities
Wraps me in a paralysing web,
Something in me softly sings
'Highs and lows, neaps and springs'.


(c) A McN