find an instant longer than a day / a moment of one-foot
in-front  / then the other / continue
like person abandoned in ocean / must swim /
not knowing the direction of land /or what grows hungry beneath
breathe deliberately / for breath is a rope to climb /
even when breath clangs a rusty song / breath prays / breathe
like a person / who has committed all to memory / who carries nothing
but mind / and so leaves nothing behind /even though at times
mind forgets everything / mind  / remembers
choose carefully / who you trust / where you rest / what you eat / if dreams
appear / have them but / do not stop / even the feather of what-might-have-been
weighs heavy / you can sink
like a drowning person  / who imagines the urgent foot is feeling sand /
oh yes be careful /
swim steady as you can / this static featureless place /
where hope seems dead/
hope only seems to die
dead hope seeds / forgotten hope grows /
this weed hope / this ocean hope / this tide / this irresistible destination

 

Poem and photograph by Jo Mariner