A Journey

On an earlier trip with Lindblad/Nat Geo, we went to Baja California. We were one day on the Sea of Cortez, looking at all the different life at sea. Here is a long poem about our day.


A Journey


Fifty fellow travelers
Escaping cold, grey days and nights
Expecting to be pampered
In a communion with nature:
Walks in the desert, and hopefully,
A chance to reach from the Zodiac
And pet a whale.


Remember this day -
The breeze mottles and darkens
The deep azure water.
Pacific describes the warm, glistening blue
Under a cloudless sky.


Remember this day -
Devil rays leaping with a full flip and twist
(Degree of difficulty 6.2)
Hammerheads swimming two feet below the surface,
Jelly fish floating by.


Remember this day -
Frigates playing with the ship's antennae
Sperm whales lolling, spouting askew,
And fan-tail diving,
Blue and humpback in the distance.


Remember this day -
Thirty dolphins running with the Sea Bird
Jumping, leaping, bow-surfing
Singly and in threes,
Fifty travelers leaning over the rails
To share the sight.


Expectations met and satisfaction, but more -

A dark line appears on the sea-side horizon -
Moving, shimmering, frothing, as it nears.
We leap to the Zodiacs to be part of the melee.
A thousand or more dolphins boil the surf -
It's Mardi Gras in the Sea of Cortez.


Expectations exceeded create
An internal bedlam of excitement -
Remember this day.


Sustain the sea -
Not just for the devil ray, dolphins,
Frigates, whales and me.


Sustain the sea -
So our grandsons' and granddaughters'
Grandchildren can, like we,
Sit by the bon-fire under Orion,
The Big Dipper, and the Pole Star
Singing songs and remembering
That dark line on the horizon:
Mardi Gras on Cortez's Sea.