Blue World

Amid a world of blue I sail alone:
Above me curves the softness of the sky,
Blue nothingness, where only seagulls fly,
And the gold sun is but one inset stone—
The blue disc of the sea spreads round me, blown
To dancing lights by blue winds sweeping by—
Sweeping me out to where blue islands lie
In mist along the rim. Yet I alone,
The moving centre of this blue-drenched world,
Am many-coloured—curling whitened spray,
Grey decks, red water-line, white sails unfurled—
My colours on a surface blue with day
Bring suddenly green shadows; and below
The sea-green, deep, mysterious waters flow.

—Irene M. Carnes.