Waves of experience

The curl of the wave as it rises,

That slight backward pull

As it draws on its resources 

The clarity with which we see through it,

The color that’s lost 

In the splash as it falls to the ground…

Perhaps they’re an echo 

Of our progress through life — 

The clarity we find in our rising expectations, 

Fueled as they are by both present and past;1

The loss of life’s color 

When our hopes are dashed,

And the never-ending progression

From stillness to hope and then, once again,

Loss, and then stillness; then hope…