Ocean Dark ~ It Is This Night that I do Leap the Edge

Poetry

A Thousand Dimensions

Ocean Dark

2023 Version

This was written a long time ago, yet it remains a very popular piece, but also one of my favourites.

A friend sent this image and wondered how I would see it.

I imagined this scene, centuries ago, long before manned flight. Divers, young men and I’m sure in far-flung places young women too, would swallow dive into the deep, dark ocean from high above on cliffs. It is written loosely in older English. No particular reason.

Its subliminal theme?

Simply put, Freedom and Democracy, which I have, all my life, taken for granted, but now realise are both increasingly under threat by totalitarian and populist regimes. The world has thousands of despots. The United Nations includes totalitarian states.

For me though, the greatest concern lies with what 340 million Americans will do in 2024. Nothing persuades me that the silent majority of Americans who oppose the Republican MAGA (Make America Great Again) will actually succeed in stopping what seems to be a mountain mudslide into Fascism.

For us all, this will be catastrophic.

OCEAN BLUE ~ MOST DARK

I

IT IS this night

That I do leap the edge

Descending through the

Crisp air

Jet-like…

And as if with eagle’s wings,

roll over,

And do cast my face to the earth,

Yet see the even crisper

Ocean Blue.

And my spirit, finding,

Eager, so eager

Do I quicken

to enter this Realm denied me.

Now this Ocean, Dark.

II

As I break the water

No splash

or even ripple,

As if a hole did open up

Its tight diameter,

Sliding her hands,

the contours of my body

That same first thrill

Some other hands explored me,

beyond familial.

Will my wings hold fast?

Will my sinews stay aligned?

Or will I dash upon the rocks...

This sweet creation

That my frame hath carried

These one score years and nine?

I pray You

Have patience

With my dallying,

For my heart cries to the Summit

From where I leapt,

Subjugating the greatest depths

Of Your creation.

III

In an instant

do I become a bird on air

Flying as no man does, or has,

Except in his dreams!

For that is all man can do!

No means mechanical will aid him;

We have but the sails

Blown to the wind.

But to the air

There is nought.

You, O God, most surely

have us there.

And so it is this

that craves my heart!

To prove to You my existence!

To challenge You!!!

IV

Swallow-like,

My arms are now beside me

In alignment,

In line of stream,

Foresooth no man hath seen before…

And with this speed that gathers up my soul

I plunge into the dark deep depths

of Your Soul

Darkness ~ Impenetrable

Ocean Dark

Most Dark!

Excitement!!

 
V

But what is this?

No icy cold as I did fear upon my entry,

But rather, that warmth recalled

in my mother’s womb. 

And rolling round

A million bubbles releasing from me,

Buoyancy I cannot describe!

A different floating,

As if I am defying You!

But what is this that has pulled me to You?!?

VI

A trillion thoughts do fly through my head!

A thousand movements …!!

Tissue and Fibres that brace and hold.

My very frame,

elongated,

Yet in beauteous perfection.

And I see none less than Great Leviathan,

Aye!

And he dost Eye me with some bemusement!

Or is it more an awareness that

this great creature sees that

Which he hath never seen afore?!?

I have the better of him, for sure!

Surely now am I Jonah reincarnated!

But unlike Jonah,

I will not allow myself to be taken … no!

But now I am not so sure

There is something only my inner being

alerts me.

It is this. Leviathan hath been here

… what? A million years afore me?

How so?

We are Your Creation

Are You telling me?

That we are something lesser?

I am perturbed.

Leviathan is unperturbed.

Not for me the hot belly of a whale!

For me, it is Your sweet womb,

And in my mind’s eye

I see the chord umbilical

Stretching from You to me,

and back from me to You,

pulsating, alive, awaiting the break

The knot

Your quiet reminder

of Your Presence just a step or so beyond

… If we desire …

And thus I am saved.

And all this

because I dared!

I dared to test You!

I dared to fly

from the pinnacle,

from the roof of the world

in this great land of 

Alaska...

And thus I am rewarded!!

And surely thus,

burgeoning forth,

my Masculinity

my Beauty

my Inner Awareness of You

restored.

My frame extends.

Every part of me lines in with stream …

Again, even here,

In the depths of your Seas

The salt thrives

Cleansing me both inward and outward.

And I do now swallow-like

Shoot upward,

To break the surface

And breathe again the sweet air

With which You enjoin us.

What day this is!

That You gave me my wings.

What day this is

That You revisited upon me Life

… Life in abundance!

… Life to be lived!!

… Life to be celebrated!!!

I shall not, O GREAT ONE,

fail Your Benign intentions

For, by Whichever Name

you make known Yourself

Tis, I now know,

good for me

And full well

Do I now see this!

Moreover,

As far as east is from west

Is that which lies between You and every religion

Regardless of the utterings and protestations

of men and women alike,

and bottoms raised high to the sky!

Ian Bradley Marshall

8 September 2023
All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL

© 2024 Ian Bradley Marshall

Digital Art by © IBM © KTW unless otherwise credited

“And I see Leviathan

eyeing me with some bemusement!

Or is it more an awareness that

this great creature sees that

Which he hath never seen afore?

 

Perchance, I warrant, even I 

hast ne’r seen the like of this afore

 

I have the better of him

I surely now am Jonah reincarnated

 

But unlike him

I shalt not allow myself the capture

Not for me the hot belly of a Whale”

— Ian Bradley Marshall ~ Ocean Dark