From the Archive: Holy Sonnet IV

The waters compassed me about, I was
Within a great within; the deep surrounded
Like out the closing maw of hell, compounded
Extract my soul as high abstraction does.
All radiant dolphins lost their lust for life
When they nor life nor lust without beheld:
The faith of pleasure is experiential.
They long to bear, as does the heaven's wife,
And to deliver, once the sea has swelled
Its mystic womb, relief to belief sensual.
From out the whale did vomit my potential
Imagination, that the forms withheld.
I am, as sailor's home is dirty ground,
A hidden treasure wanting to be found.