Waves

I wrote the poem Waves some short time ago for a school English project. I wasn’t originally planning to share it on my blog, but then I decided why not? I have never been one to enjoy reading poetry or especially one to write it, but when I began brainstorming, suddenly everything just clicked. I have to admit I am happy with the finished product and I would like to say in advance, thank you to my special readers who take the time to read through my articles and now, my first poem. I tremendously appreciate it! 🙂 Voila, enjoy!

Waves

Soft feet padded on the flax gold

Sinking deeply with every step, walking numb against the misty air

Salty tears washed the dead upon the shore

The radiant sun illuminated the sky as the dark,

Clear water stood shimmering still with silver tones glistening atop

Droplets sprayed at her sunken flesh, driving shivers along her spine

The sun melted into the sea.

Soon, the waves once dancing in mesmeric beauty,

Crashed and roared wildly against the cliff edge

She stood anxiously clenching her fists.

The clouds watching as the paleness grew

The life slowly draining from her fingertips

Staring blankly, the ferocious waves called for her presence

The violent, thrust of wind and curse of whitecaps pulled her undercurrent

She moved with the rhythm of the waves and was swept,

Swept into the wondrous pelagic.

The seagulls screeched midflight, swarming overhead

Echoes of the sea suddenly hushed in silence

The tidal waves followed the footprints that lead home,

Leaving nothing, but the fresh smoothness of the flax gold

 

Explanation

The poem “Waves” is about a woman committing suicide. The waves of the sea are a reflection of how she views herself. At the beginning of the poem “Soft feet padded on the flax gold” (Line 1), the woman is walking atop the flax gold (sand) and this is to be perceived as a happier tone. With the words “Sinking deeply” (Line 2) meaning that with every step her feet are sinking into the sand, are a contrast to before how her feet were padding softly atop the sand. By reading these two lines, the reader can get a brief understanding that the character has a dark, mysterious tone. The poem also states that the woman is feeling incomplete and rather isolated or low-spirited with the phrase “Walking numb against the misty air” (Line 2). “Salty tears washed the dead upon the shore” (Line 3), states that the dead fish and the yucky sea foam are being brought to shore by the waves. This is a great representation as to how the character may feel about herself. Within the next few lines the poem gives a lot of detailed imagery of the sun and how the dark, yet clear water is glistening with silver tones providing an ominous description of the seaside. It is also quite interesting how the sun is illuminating the sky yet the water is described as dark in colour. Once again, this is an example of the woman’s bottled emotions being released. “Soon, the waves once dancing in mesmeric beauty” (Line 8) and “Crashed and roared wildly against the cliff edge” (Line 9), have an immediate shift in tone. My thought with these two lines was to create an image so strong and furious, that way the reader could experience and hopefully be able to imagine the intensity of this very moment in the poem. In line 10, the woman is now standing at the top of the cliff anxiously plotting her death and watching the waves mimic her wild ups and downs of emotions. The way she is clenching her fists very hard – so much that they turn pale, could almost be her way of changing over to an angel or ghost with the use of the colour white. The woman, at this point, is thinking that she is ready to go to the afterlife. This is how I perceived this moment to be, but it could be interpreted differently based on the reader’s beliefs, values, etc. Then in the next line, the waves call for the girl’s presence “Staring blankly, the ferocious waves called for her presence” (Line 13). This could be interpreted as her conscience calling for her and telling her to jump off of the cliff. All of a sudden with “The violent thrust of wind and curse of whitecaps” the woman is pulled undercurrent meaning that she jumped from the cliff and is currently being held underwater by the waves of the sea. This is a huge moment in the poem because all of the negative vocabulary leads to this point. The terms violent and curse both have extremely strong, negative tones allowing the reader to fully grasp the emotions. When the woman commits suicide the poem describes it as her being swept by the waves, in contrast to her being pulled undercurrent. The description I used for this particular part was to be portrayed as peaceful by repeating the word swept. The seagulls screeching above and swarming overhead in  line 17 is another dark tone, but it was to amplify the family and friends mourning her death. In the last three lines of the poem, there is a shift of tone once more with the hushing of the sea, the tidal waves following the last traces of her footprints and smoothing over them, leaving nothing but the flax gold. For these last few lines I wanted to create a final statement to her life saying that she is now gone from the world and that there are no traces left of her. I didn’t really go into detail as to say if her family has kept memories and so on. However, you could look at the last lines in a positive way meaning that she is at peace, or in a negative way meaning that she is gone and not remembered or truly missed, even though the “seagulls” screeched for her. With the last line of the poem, there is repetition of the flax gold, allowing the reader to once more touch its smoothness. In the last line, I also decided I would tie back to the beginning of the poem, and make reference to the smoothness of the sand and how the beach scenery returned to its original state. The poem has a depressing effect on the reader because the mood, tone, and whole story-like journey brings along the true sadness of one taking their own life. I understand that the poem is quite dark and yes, I did put some of my personal feelings into the poem. I do believe everyone, at some point in their life have dark, and overwhelming waves of sadness that they go through because in many ways, that is just the natural part of life and we must accept that there will always be good and bad days. The feeling of having dark and overwhelming waves of sadness inspired me to write this poem using the simple nature of the sea and coinciding it with the setting of a much more serious topic, suicide.

I hope you all enjoyed reading my poem and were able to take a meaningful piece of it along with you to keep in your heart.

 Written by Tessa R. Adamski