A dream about sliding into the unchartered depths and dark rhythms of the sea

A photo of me taken by Russet,
hiking in the White Mountains 5/1/10,
polarized in Photoshop

A dream I had last night: Part I

Like a bolt out of the blue:

It strikes me I must start a journey:

hike the Appalachian Trail,

NOW before snow fills the passes.

Beginning on the barren knife edge

of Mt Katahdin I head south

but, oddly, arrive at the ocean instead,

stumbling over rocks and slick seaweed,

increasingly hemmed in as I navigate

between lapping waves and arid cliffs.

As I hurry along in the fading light,

the shore turns to slippery ledge,

so steeply inclined that inextricably,

like a ship being launched,

I slide into unchartered depths

and dark rhythms of the sea,

disoriented and all alone.

As I float untethered
in a misty sea fog of unknowing,

lit by the soft glow of the moon,
 I sense with trepidation that
this is the moment of truth:

To continue on my journey

I must take the plunge.

Caught between the cliffs and the sea at dusk
CC Jean Stimmell: Oregon coast, Sept. 2013