Gate To Paradise

This is a poem from a couple of years ago, when I was about thirteen, as part of my work with the Red Room Company's 'Sea Things' poetry project. For more information see here.

I lost this work a little while ago, somewhere between USBs, my home computer and the school's complex and largely malfunctional computer system. But I found it on the Red Room Company's flickr stream, incorrectly labelled, but my childish labour of love nonetheless. So here it is, as I sent it, edited heavily by my scrupulous teacher (hence the many semi-colons). I have removed some slightly strangely-placed commas.

Gate to Paradise:

I'm eager to leave civilization behind,

The highway I must cross is a cruel reminder of what we have done to this world;

And what the world has done to me. 

I race down the glistening sand path,

The sand glittering like crushed diamonds. 

I can sense myself getting closer to paradise,

The world's own version of nirvana;

Because with every step,

The air gets fresher,

Cleaner;

And tears turn into smiles. 

The fierce sea wind blows away my pain,

The cool water soothes my fiery anger,

And it is here,

Alone on the beach,

Just me, the sun and the sea;

I feel at peace. 

The beach is a land of goddesses,

The glorious sun,

The magnificent sea.

I am nothing compared to this glorious magnificence,

This magnificent glory;

But I don't mind.

The sea seems to be above such trifle things

Such as love, or hate, or guilt.

It loves unconditionally,

It kills indiscriminately,

And each wave remembers centuries of happiness and pain.

I don't want to walk back

To civilization,

To society;

Where rules impose an endless sea of pain,

Frustration,

Emptiness.

But as the sun goes down,

And the sea turns black,

I walk back into the game of life,

Where everyone plays until the bitter end. 

by L.R. edited by M.H.

So what do you think? How does it compare to the poems I compose now? It's a little snapshot of the past - fascinating, isn't it? Many things have changed since I wrote this poem, but many things stay the same - the tide comes in, comes out, the waves crash, and the beach continues to amaze and terrify me. 

I remember writing this vividly; being completely stuck, as I spend very little time around the beach compared to many Australians. Then we went to the beach, as a family, which for us is just down the road and across a horrendously busy highway - and I walked up the path of crushed diamonds (I tastefully ommited the piles of doggy doo that were on this crushed diamond corridor) and then to the wild and beautiful sea, all but abandoned, with the fiery sun scorching the sky a beautiful rosy hue before sinking gracefully into the mighty expanse of the sea. It was truly magnificent. The moment I got home and brushed the sand off my legs I wrote the poem, pretty much as is. Impulse writing is my speciality, and indeed, a poem written in the heat of the moment helped me gain entrance to my school.