Kraken

A poem about fear and nightmares that lurk in the back of our mind - and about overcoming those fears

The kraken arises from an ocean of riven time.
Jaws gritty with the dust of things once precious.
Each sinuous movement violates reason and rhyme
A murky intelligence stares from its eyes, deeply vicious.

 

Its elemental fear makes us doubt our every intent.

 

Most terrible because it is so intensely silent…
More strange than any beast in any sea ever sailed…
A mere hint of its rising makes the heartbeat violent
As we feel the foundations of our being are assailed.

 

Even to think of it makes the universe feel bent.

 

For this beast devours our souls’ hard-won pearls
Spitting out the fragments of the truth we thought secure
Throws us silent and naked into a lonely world

Where the shreds of our peace must struggle to endure.

 

But one day we must stop being prey and learn to fight.

 

Set out to hunt the beast across the deep ocean floors -
Stare into its eyes to defy it, and there see its flaws and errors.
Rebuild for ourselves what was pulverised by its jaws,
And relax, knowing our peace stronger than its paralysing terrors,

 

Buoyant on dawn-blushed waves, at the end of the kraken night.

 

Reviews

[Chelsea Schermerhorn]

OH, so true! I love this poem. This has such depth of perception and emotion. Irrational fear that somehow justifies itself in our minds.... We have to find a way to overcome that personal obstacle and realize, that no matter what, it will all end one day. Very nice poem.