Marine Ecology

“Like love, the coral reef is a great mystery that sweeps over us, bypassing our rational minds entirely and eliciting feelings we didn’t know were in us”—The Enchanted Braid, Osha Gray Davidson.

 

It is no wonder many of us wax poetic when describing the rain forests of the sea.  This semester we returned to Calabash Caye for marine ecology.  Here are a few poems to give you a glimpse, a taste, of our experience there…

 

Breathing.

I hear breathing.

My breathing. Steady and deep. In and out.

Waves.

I hear them too.

But they are gentle background noise of that other world above this 

aquatic jungle.

And popping.

I hear a clutter of cracking and popping as fishes and other secret 

organisms bustle about their business.

Freely and seemingly effortlessly going about their lives for survival 

on the reef.

 

Taste.

I taste salt, and honestly that is all I taste.

 

Warm salt water. (later to be crust and dust in my hair and salt 

crystals on my skin)

This is what I feel.

It envelopes me.

I dive and am totally taken in by this dimension. Their Dimension.

 

Colors.

I see colors.

All colors:

Black, white, brown, tan, yellow, neon green, grey, dark blue, deep 

red, shimmering emerald green, orange, royal purple, line, sand, ash, 

and on and on.

Shapes.

I see shapes, and patterns too.

Round, square, tall, short, cylindrical, stripes, checkers, dots, 

scales, fins, eyes, mesh-like fans, cones, half circles, shapes and 

patterns that don’t even have names!

I am encompassed by it all.

My senses are saturated.

This place is teaming.

This place is alive.

I am alive.

  I breathe.

                        --Jessie Borden

Beneath the Waters:

 

The ocean swells pulse through my body

Even after I leave the waves

The salt lightly peppers my skin

The sights and colors brighten my eyes

And the absence of sounds makes it feel

Like I am floating in a dream world.

There is so much life out in the open

And much, much more life beyond

What our eyes can see

At the surface level, which is all I can pierce

For the abilities of humans have not yet unlocked

The web of intricacies only God could knit together

I am privileged, one of only some

That are allowed to peek into a time machine

That shows the alternating scars and healings

The earth has inflicted on this strong, yet vulnerable

Underworld.

                  --Christine Prins

 

 

I have often looked out across the sea -

                played in its waves,

                tasted its salt in my nostrils.

It was always there, something to entertain

 on warm summer days.

Never did I wonder, nor did I suspect,

What was present beneath its waves.

 

Its coral reef is full of beauty

It is an undulating labyrinth,

dappled by the diffuse sunlight,

                a shimmering and delicate landscape.

It is an intriguing mystery.

 

As its cool water envelops me,

I see only the life beneath me,

hear only my own breath and an alien crackling.

Below me:

                elkhorn, staghorn,

                blue tang, blue head,

                squirrel fish, cow fish,

                damsel fish, angel fish.

The complexities of their lives are beyond imagining.

 

But I enjoy observing,

                      wondering,

                     invading

                                           for a short time.

                                                      --Autumn Brown