As the Tide Comes In

The long-winged terns dart wild and dire, As the tide comes tumbling in. The calm rock-pools grow all alive, With the tide tumbling in, The crab that under the brown weed creeps, And the snail who lies in his house and sleeps, Awake and stir, as the plunging sweep Of the tide comes tumbling in. The driftwood swishes along the sand, As the tide comes tumbling in. With wreck and wrack from many a land, On the tide, tumbling in. About my feet are a broken spar, A pale anemone’s torn sea-star And scattered scum of the waves’ old war, As the tide comes tumbling in. And, oh, there is a stir at the heart of me, As the tide comes tumbling in. All life once more is a part of me, As the tide tumbles in. New hopes awaken beneath despair And thoughts slip free of the sloth of care, While beauty and love are everywhere⁠— As the tide comes tumbling in.