Moments before, the sea was breathlessly calm.
Suddenly the surface ruptured and a head arose,
dripping, dark. Then onto our beach it came,
lumbering heavily, tossing its head with a roar.
Somewhere in the depths of the mind a memory stirred,
something primeval: wasn’t this how we emerged?
Sea lion. We. Why you? Why me?
© John Looker 2016
Poetry from John Looker 
great poem John. Yes, I often wonder
Sent from my iPhone
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By: Frederick E. Whitehead on 4 March, 2016
at 17:16
Love this use of verse & metaphor for thinking about the mystery of why you why me. Just wrote a short essay on a Heaney poem which addresses the mystery of why anything at all. See metaphysicsandpoetry.com
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By: Tom D'Evelyn on 4 March, 2016
at 17:21
Thanks Tom. I was reading your post on the Seamus Heaney poem earlier, and found it most interesting. This is the link:http://poetryandmetaphysics.com/2016/03/04/heaneys-seeing-into-the-to-be/
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By: John Looker on 4 March, 2016
at 18:37
Going deep into primal memories, tying them to the startling roar of a sea lion emerging out of waves, then the eternity of question: Why you? Why me? Why? The whirlpool whirls upon a sea so calm only the sky’s reflection mars its surface. Then, in moment, the swirling is gone and the sky is filled with thunderheads that roar into space and obliterate everything into a dance of blue white lightning and wind-whipped manes of enormous, rolling waves. We are small, John. Small in the doings of the universe.
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By: Thomas Davis on 4 March, 2016
at 17:38
Aren’t we just, Tom! “Small in the doings of the universe” – you put it very well.
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By: John Looker on 4 March, 2016
at 18:40
I hear a beautiful music in these words.
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By: Brian Dean Powers on 4 March, 2016
at 18:22
Clever title! And a very good poem. 🙂
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By: Bennison Books on 4 March, 2016
at 19:30
John, you are such a master of consonance (slant rhyme, off rhyme). Do you do it with malice aforethought, or does it just happen, so that you and the sea lion end up asking each other: why you? why me?
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By: Cynthia Jobin on 4 March, 2016
at 23:54
Hi Cynthia. Well, this is a half-sonnet with half rhymes so the question arose how to handle the tercet; the solution was internal rhyme in the final line – which happily carried the poem to where it wanted to end. I suppose that sounds half pretentious though!
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By: John Looker on 5 March, 2016
at 09:10
Ah, yes…we are always only half in charge, carrying the poem to where IT wants to end…and this one ends in such a felicitous way.
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By: Cynthia Jobin on 5 March, 2016
at 14:51
Excellent.
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By: rabirius on 5 March, 2016
at 12:45
Hi John, good poem 🙂 I like the images.
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By: Ina on 7 March, 2016
at 21:14