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TSUNAMI — a dream, poem and super graphic by Bill Kochman
Last Updated: September 5, 2021
“For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.”
Job 33:14-17, KJV
This is a “super graphic”. Please click the image in order to see it full size.
Dear Friends,
The graphic poem you are about to read is based on a real dream which I had in September of 2014, only a few hours after having another dream the same morning called “Utopian Dream Machine”.
That I should have two, short, rather vivid dreams during the same morning, and remember them both, no less, seems rather unusual to me. I don’t dream all that often, but when I do, I usually forget them. But in this case, I woke up immediately after having each dream, and I set about on my computer to compose a poem in which I describe the details of each dream, along with a related graphic.
As with the “Utopian Dream Machine” dream, I am not sure if this second dream has any real significance or not. However, I did dream it, and I remembered it, so I will let you be the judge.
Bear in mind that the subject matter of this dream is not pleasant; particularly if you remember the devastating tsunami which deluged the nations bordering the Indian Ocean in 2004. As a result of that natural tragedy, it is said that collectively speaking, over 290,000 people lost their lives.
For those of you who may not be familiar with what a “reef flat” is, or a “drawback” — both mentioned in this poem — below are some links from the Wikipedia website. In particular, please read the information that is found under the “Characteristics” and “Drawback” sections:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringing_reef
Allow me to offer one other word of explanation. The “canal” I mention in this poem is actually a natural channel which can be cut in a reef flat — quite often near the shore — due to the strong flow of water within the reef flat. In other words, as occurs here on our island, in some reef flats, water will enter the reef flat from the open ocean, flow in a certain direction near the shore, and then exit the reef flat at the other end. The result of this constant strong flow of water is that it slowly cuts a channel or canal in the reef flat. The ones I have seen and swam in, can be up to twenty feet deep in areas.
So in this poem, what I am describing is that as the water drew back from the shoreline due to the “drawback” of the tsunami, the area of the reef flat that was nearest to the shore was exposed to the air, then there was the channel — which still remained full of water (because it was deeper ) where everyone wanted to swim — and then the outer area of the reef flat facing the open ocean, which was also exposed to the air, due to the suddenly dropping water level. I hope that makes sense to you.
Rather than try to draw what I actually saw in this dream, I have used a photograph of the ocean at Two Lovers Point, Guam, USA as the background image.