My View of the World
By Anonymous, 16, Wisconsin
My current keeps the seagulls circling
In my reflection they can look for food.
Their wings ripple me with a simple touch.
My movement carries sand and dust from the ocean floor,
until it collects enough to form a sandbar.
Once structured, the sand stops debris in my current.
My waters are friendly to floating debris like tree trunks,
which travel a great distance with unique stories behind them.
Branches hold firm to the sand as if they never will let go.
My warm embrace surrounds islands that have lived here with me
almost all my life, as I clean their edges and shores.
I shape their land as my water lowers and rises.
I envy the sky as we face each other,
Its charming gaze and clouds taunt me, looking down.
As the sun rises and sets, I match my colors to the sky.
We had a writing prompt in my creative writing class and we looked at different paintings to get inspiration from a poem. I chose the painting Enchanted Island, 1978 by Millard Sheets. Then we were able to use personification or other elements to describe how we see the painting. I wrote my poem through the perspective of the water.
