Dolphin Poem

Dolphins we swam with on the Big Island (credit)

My friend Anne Jennings Paris has been challenging some of us to write the poems that she's been assigning to her students.  Recently, she asked us to write a poem in the style of Emily Dickinson.  This poem was inspired by meditations I've been doing lately that focus on my breath.  During a meditation, I envisioned a dolphin.  I felt like she was there as a kind of spirit guide.

I Felt a Dolphin Come to Me

I felt a dolphin come to me
before I saw her there.
She clicked and cawed beneath the sea
aglide with breath to spare.

She looked me sideways in the eye
her heft a soft gray stone—
she told me I can summon her
the times I feel alone.

The cobalt depths were limitless,
the water a yielding skin.
I felt my breath reach endlessness,
my spirit spread within.

She rose through blue to blue above,
crowning sky and sea—
her perfect breath invited love
to breathe inside of me.