Swimming In Strange Waters. Poem by Nomad Goggs

So here I am, warm, supported, floating.
Neither atop or bottom of this new ocean, happy yet unsure.
Wherever I swim I feel the same distance from all points, comfortably unfamiliar.
Never fearing drowning, yet unable to reach my destination.

The water changes my perspective, near things far, far things near.
I reach out to grasp to close my fingers on nothing.
Then bump into obstacles, from a distant distant past.
Once I was drowning, floundering, but not now.

Why risk by striving, is this not freedom enough?
Pleasing yet tantalising, I try to swim deeper.
But the surface and the floor remain equidistant.
Buoyant, safe but not quite fulfilled.

Sharks patrol these waters, of that I’m sure.
But they do not frighten me anymore, merely fascinate.
I drift through nets, but not struggling, pass through.
Designed to catch those with different agendas to me.

Unfamiliar waters, yet safer than those I know well.
Perhaps they hold dangers, but I believe not.
Ignorant or hopeful I continue, safe without knowledge.
The unknown controls me no more.

Now I have learnt to arrest my dives, and this seems clear.
No longer dwelling in the murk of undeserved fears.
But I must watch, learn and listen.
For if I try and catch the beauty it will evade.

Patience my constant companion, I must learn to embrace.
For only with her will I receive what I want.
But ‘tis so difficult not to reach for the corals.
As if I touch them they will die.

So now I swim on, alone but together.
Leaving the shells for all here to see.
Only by leaving these wonders for others
Can I hope for them to swim to me.