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