Steemit Vision Quest: Sky Meets the Sea (Original Poetry and a Backstory of How It Was Written)

Healthy reef in Sogod Bay, Philippines

Dainty, dainty damsels, no signs of distress
Each going their own way, protecting their nests
For little as they may be, they guard with their lives
Their own territory where they feed and they thrive


Bright miss yellow tail butterfly said "Hi!"
Before she fluttered to rejoin the mister nearby
Also out to graze was mummy and toby
"Don't mind PB & Js this morning" said he


Grumpy grandma puffer awoke from her slumber
"Who dare disturb my sleep in this chilly weather?
Why don't you stay low as do the cardinals?"
A faint chuckle was the answer by the angel regal.


"It's a great day granny, don't you see?
Colorful and graceful worms, the feather duster and christmas tree"
"Right you are dear, though old and grumpy I may seem,
the reef is our paradise and we're living the dream."

---

My only regret right now is that I only stumbled across @cabelindsay's Steemit Vision Quest an hour ago so here I am blitzing an entry to this week's contest, to which I feel I most belong to.

I am relatively new to steemit and after an overwhelmingly random top nomination from @ocd after writing about a hiking experience in a tropical rainforest, I browsed other nominations and comments on the @ocd post and @cabelindsay talking about Steemit Vision Quest caught my eye.

When I watched his SVQ introduction video, I knew I had something to contribute but I only had a few hours to get this done as the Sunday due is only hours away.

Here's an original poetry that is very fitting to the theme "Sky Meets Sea" and that I wrote in a very unique way. In fact, I've never heard anyone yet who has written it the same way. Here's the backstory:

Photo of the original writing slate where I scribbled this poetry underwater during a dive

In the early part of 2017, I was unemployed and have just earned a scholarship for Filipinos from a British organization called Coral Cay Conservation to learn how to dive and do marine surveying. After my scholarship, I applied to become volunteer staff and this time teaching other scholars and foreign volunteers how to identify fishes, corals, algae, and invertebrates. We spent our days diving at least two to three times and they were the most elating days of my life. Some dives were busy and some dives were just for recreation. On one dive, I felt an extreme sense of equilibrium while hovering over corals and noticing our resident fishes. I had an empty writing slate so I started writing down this poem.

I have never published this poetry before but when I came across @cabelindsay's SVQ challenge, I knew it was time to show it to other people. I have made the creatures I met on that dive as characters for this original story and giving them human-like lives and hopefully show readers how these creatures behave underwater.

Some of the creatures I have mentioned are damselfishes who are naturally territorial, butterflyfishes who often come in pairs and just slowly flutter around the reef, the mum and son combo of the toby, the cardinals who live low and hide between rocks and corals, the pufferfish whose facial expression might seem like a frown but really isn't, and the regal angelfish who always brightens the reef with its dainty colors. Feather duster worms and christmas tree worms are tube worms who also come in a variety of colors and are feathery fun to look at!

Ever since I learned to dive and to identify creatures, I have always felt like our world is one with reef. In this original poetry, I have given the fishes the chance to express themselves as humans (notice that I called them damsels instead of damselfishes, that's to make a whole new kind of character), to experience the sun and the clouds, and to make the sky meet the sea.

Hope you like some underwater art!

(All photos are owned by the author)

Happy bubbles,
@xaydtrips