Sunset on South Haven Beach
Look at the sun sink low
as it kisses the gray puffed clouds
on this stretch of beach where I sit
and touch the space between the moments,
where everything shrinks
into this beauty abyss,
my thoughts finally forgotten.
This sunset is telling a story
my whole life I have been trying
to understand
what billows between the crests of waves,
what timelessness whispers,
“Don’t be afraid of all this
everything”
Rolled into the gentle breeze,
tucked between the pounding waves,
woven through the patterned mirage
of day and night
where all things find their meaning.
Thich Nhat Hahn said,
“Enlightenment is when a wave realizes it
is the ocean.”
Today I mistook the lake for an ocean,
and it was like falling awake.
Night is only the beginning
of the end of day,
so open your eyes as dark descends.
Come see for yourself
how everything good
has been here all along.
Christen Lee
Christen
Lee is a family nurse practitioner in Cleveland, Ohio. Her writing has been
featured in the Literary Cleveland’s Voices from the Edge Anthology, Rue
Scribe, The Write Launch, Aurora, Humans of the World Blog, Sad
Girls Club, 2022 New Generation Beats Anthology, Wingless
Dreamer and is forthcoming in The Voices of Real 7 Compilation.