By Douglas Cavers

I look to you, my shadow of the deep—
A shade so like a hole within the sea.
Perhaps there’s much alike between you and me.

I look within my mind as if I could
Swim just as deep as you; I gaze upon
Your beard of kelp, your hardened granite face,

Pocked with barnacles, coated in sea-brine.
I try to feel the coursing of the waves
Around your rocky flanks. I try to sense

Your cold, stone heart— a pit in a mighty peach,
That time and man forgot, and left to sink
Below to where just streaks of light can be.

What is the secret of your moans, the gurgling
Waters you send forth in swirling eddies?
I fear that I may never dive as deep;

Or fear perhaps that I shall drown in trying.
Only cherrystone and quahog will know
The aspect of your love; only fiddler crab

And starfish legs, periwinkle and sea bass;
While I must stand and look without myself
Upon the endless, faceless, mocking sea.