Great Mother Ocean by Don Berry *
Great Mother ocean brought forth all life . It is my eternal home . That I have been gone into strange worlds so long ; Countries without currents , countries without tides , I have forgotten how to live in the world that created me .
I am slow , I am clumsy , I have lost my grace . But the deep indigo of the depths calls me like a loving mother .
Return to the depths , return to the source , return to your nature . Sometimes beneath the shimmering surface of my memory , I sense the deeper memories of generation after generation of hunters . For tens of thousands of years , I have kept a faithful record of my hunting so the children of my children ’ s children will know and remember .
And more permanent than any painted stone is the memory that lies at the heart of my every cell , the memory of my hunting , the history of my tribe .
And when I wake beneath the modern sky full of smoke and sound as from a dream , I believe I have lost my way back , for I cannot forget that I am a hunter and I am from a race of hunters and there is not a place for hunters in this time .
Great Mother Ocean brought forth all life and beneath the surface of the sea . I am always dazzled by the plenitude , the endless and eternal generosity of the mother . Is there a memory of what this means that I have somehow forgotten ? Is there a harmony that my ears cannot hear , but my every cell knows ?
Just beyond the reach of my senses , beyond the reach of my rational mind I know that I am part of the invisible web that links all living things together , that I am such a tiny speck in this vast world and so long removed that my understanding fails when I try to grasp the greater meaning .
Still , there is the call to return from the elusive promise of understanding . If not today , then perhaps tomorrow or the day after . Or perhaps not in this life .
But an understanding that is worth a life of seeking .
* Don Berry ( deceased ) wrote this moving poem for the PBS special Blue Water Hunters filmed by Rick Rosenthal , and produced by Laszlo Pal . Viewed by several millions , this video introduced the world to blue water hunting . Here is a sample of the video and follow this link to purchase .
A solitary kelp paddy attracts bait as it floats across the famed Cortez Bank off California . Photo by Terry Maas