THE GROUND AND THE SEA by J.T.A. Reddy

A sailor came upon a speck of ground

where waves were all the eye could see, and he

would ask of love and where it would be found, 

and if it was to life what land must be

to all the waves that breathe and make the sea. 

The man, when no reply would come, set sail 

across the humming wastes, to land he dreamed, 

where once the speck had came, beyond the veil,

and land alone he found. He felt esteemed. 

But finally, the ground would speak, redeemed: 

“I wandered waves alone because I saw

the land; my love is blue, and true.” The man

enraged, did throw the speck into the maw,

and saw the waves alone once more. But then, 

when all the waves abided, he would swear

his boat began to list; what had he missed? 

That love was not the sea or land alone;

but waves, made by specks that had been thrown.