Sea Glass
By Kimberley S
A token from the sea that clasps the shore.
You are a prism of frosted light, a glowing
Stone of crystal, I hold you in my hand evermore.
But you, you hold the sea when the sea can not be held.
What is anything else in the world when your light shines
A diffracted oasis against the wall?
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This poem was Highly Commended (Secondary) for Poetry Object 2016
Judge's Notes:
"This economical poem, only six lines, deftly plays around with sound rhyme and part rhyme, and invokes repetition just as the ocean and its waves and currents are forms of repetition. It also had an attractive structural idea around the mid-line break, or caesura that, because it is a smooth not a hard break also mimics the movement of waves in and out. So, ‘A token from the sea (soft break) that clasps the shore’, and you see this operate in every line, variously. The sound scheme of the poem is also cleverly done so that it deviates from rhyme scheme then almost returns – so there’s, again, an idea of resonance. The fourth line is a key to the poem, the idea of holding something that cannot be held, as objects slip away while they transform us."
~ Jill Jones, Judge, Poetry Object 2016