The scent of rain on ocean
So different
from anywhere else it falls
Bitumen
Soil
All add their aromas
But out on the water
Clouds cry
Kissing salt
Brine dissolving
Colliding
Into a thousand patters that slide
Boards rock gently
Feet dangling
As above
So below
Wet
Faces turn to catch the droplets
Grey wraiths
Ghost surfers
Sails bloom
Shutter opens
Closes
Clouds gloom lower
Silver light draws tight
Suffocating the horizon
Monochrome whispers melancholy sighs
Wet sand crunches in footprint goodbyes
The day feels suspended
In the moment
This poem sprang from a collaboration with a great photographer on Instagram. GB reached out his week to ask if I might provide some words to go with some recent photos he took. I was chuffed to provide the poem above. GB has a few different pages on Instagram – the collab occurred for Surfstack.gb. Visit by scanning the picture below. Creating is beautiful but collaboration is even better.
So true! I love this poem, Kate! We are finally getting our first fall rains here (late!), and I am so grateful, just taking in the magic. I’ve become down-right crotchety about people calling the rain “bad weather”! It’s so refreshing to me to read a poem like this that glories in the skywater and in the sea! Thank you!