Friday, August 15, 2014

Whale Shark (Poem)

This past June I was able to swim with two whale sharks in Exmouth, Australia. I wrote this poem three days after the amazing experience...

"Spotter in!
Go, go go!"
We jumped on in
Not sure what was below. 

"Stick your mask in.
Look straight ahead."
All went silent
Like life was dead. 

A second or two passed
with no sound.
For a moment I was scared
Of what could be around. 

And suddenly there it was.
This massive creature came in view.
The biggest fish in the ocean
and the most gentle too.

Photo Credit: Exmouth Dive Center
It glided along 
Seemingly not to care
That onlookers jumped in 
And could do nothing but stare.

We swam along beside it
And I reminded myself to breathe.
Snorkeling became simple
The shark was calming. 

Its spots were big.
Its mouth agape. 
It was busy eating.
Nothing could escape.

Photo Credit: Exmouth Dive Center

Suckerfish below it
held on for a ride.
They didn't do much - 
just let the whale shark glide.

And there we still were
Swimming next to it in shock.
It was a whole new world
And time seemed to stop.
Photo Credit: Exmouth Dive Center
I don't know how long it was
How long we shared that space
But the feeling was unreal
Something that can't be replaced.

Dwarfed by its size
I remembered feeling small
But being in its presence
Left me in awe.

But unfortunately for us
The swim had to conclude.
We let it move on
In the ocean blue

The boat came to retrieve us
and we jumped in the rear
I felt exhilarated, alive
and didn't have any fear. 


We dove in one more time
and the story repeated again:
Silence, time froze
Suckerfish and fins. 

But the second time was it.
Only two dives that day. 
I was lucky to experience it
and see life that way.

So now when I look in the ocean
Whether it's daylight or dark
I'll remember my experience
of swimming with whale sharks. 


If you want to read another post I wrote about my Whale Shark experience and a great lesson I learned during it, click here to read: "It's Ok To Ask For Help." And, here are two more poems about my trip to Australia: "There's Another World Out There" and "There are People Out There"

Thanks for reading!
Arin
(@ArinKress)

1 comment:

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