By CYNTHIA SHARPE

Cynthia Sharpe, a former communications intern with North Carolina Sea Grant, holds an English degree from North Carolina State University.

Top photo courtesy villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com. Bottom photo courtesy N.C. State Parks.

Cynthia Sharpe sees many images when she reads this poem: Earth spinning in space, familiar landscapes going through seasonal cycles, and the sun coming up behind snowy trees. Photos above courtesy of N.C. State Parks.

3 cheers for the world,
The hopeful soul that it is.
Ever aging,
Ever growing,
Ever changing
Life to dust and dust to life.

It must believe in greater things.
Love, hope, joy, abundance.
A reward of some sort
For it to keep pushing the way it does.
It must have been made a promise.

Or be bound by one.

Tortured by the mundane,
Nothing new under the sun.
Sick from spinning.
Indefinitely sentenced to wake and slumber,
Flourish and sacrifice.

3 cheers for the world,
That it somehow musters up the strength to renew itself.
HERself.
After 360 something days of promise.
It is a mother’s strength.
I am my mother’s child.

This article was published in the Winter 2017 issue of Coastwatch.

For contact information and reprint requests, visit ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/coastwatch/contact/.