Poem #4: The Brandenburg

Happy 2020! This poem is one of my favorites, an oldie but a goodie written back when I was in college and still a fearless (if not lonely) dreamer, and so full of hope. It feels like a fitting way to welcome the new year:

I boarded a great ship

It took me to the sea

I was swept into the ocean

Taken far away from me.

Summer’s here and moving slow

The sun is never out

Only rays of longing stretch

Grey shades of endless doubt.

But in my mind—exhilaration

A force propels a change within

A course to sail to leave this place

Be a new girl that I’ve never been.

To wake and live what I’ve dreamt inside

I need only wait a few more seasons

Then seek the last of my desires

In a wake of too long hidden reasons.

Only God can see the future

And my eyes awash with tears

The ship will dock in my hometown

Waves rushing to grasp the pier.

"The Brandenburg," copyright 2020 Amelia Cotter (first published in Way of the Word Limited First Edition Anthology, 2009)