Poetry

Skimming or dipping

I feel like one of those flat skimming stones
Whom across the surface of life I’ve been thrown
With force and speed I skip and skim the water’s skin
Not wanting to lose momentum for fear I’ll fall in
To the depths below, I know not what they hold
Darkness, emptiness, stillness or so I’ve been told
So I skim over life not ever wanting to miss a beat
Not reaching the other side is a sure sign of defeat
And every skip on the surface feels like another year
The skips still quicken so that the gaps now disappear
Between hitting times of activity and pure times of rest
Frantically chanting the chant “I’m just doing my best”
I am that skimming stone with 66 skips I’m flat out
But I’ve lost my pace, sputter sputter, I begin to doubt
If I’ll reach the other side of life’s pond after all
What is there anyway except for a hard bumpy fall?
As I begin to slow, I dare to dip in, down and beneath
The surface of life; oh, quiet time and space to breathe
And what peace lies down here; how I wish I had known
For my next life, may I return as a rock & not a skim stone.

~ By M@Z (2010) ~