Mighty Cachalot

Eighty-foot-long King of the Seas

, sperm-whale, Physeter macrocephalus

Must live in the depths, diving over 7,000 feet,

Doing battle with forty-foot giant squids,

Swallowing sharks and rays and fish

The largest toothed predator on the planet.

There in the depths where light cannot penetrate

Where pressure would crush man and beast,

The giant communes alone with the darkness

Echolocating to find his way

In solitude and contemplation, undisturbed,

Unthreatened, One with all Creation

Yet, he must surface as well, gulping in huge

Volumes of air, filling giant lungs,

Playfully slapping his flukes, riding

The waves under the warming sun

He cannot live without diving

He cannot live without surfacing.

And I, like the whale must at regular

Intervals, dive into the depths of mystery,

For there I find sustenance

And I, like the whale must at regular

Intervals, surface into ordinary life,

For it is there I find connectedness.