'Be'

Many poets try to just 'be.' Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3 1802 is a poem, by William Wordsworth, that shows how to just be. To 'be' is simple enough, but extremely difficult at the same time. To 'be' is to relax the soul, to listen to nature, to enjoy life. It means to see the beauty in the rugged, to hear the birds sing in the city, and connect to the spirit of life. Wordsworth wrote the Westminster Bridge poem because he was passing over it one morning before the factories roared-up and the people started to bustle. He was surprised that London could look like that; without the smog and the people, it was as if the city now had a soul, something that couldn’t go unnoticed. The city just ‘was.’ The air was clear, the beauty doubtless. It was as if time had stopped and the heart of the city was pounding softly, until people woke up again and the dirt and dust accumulated.

One day, at 3pm, I was sitting on steps in a small park overlooking Dungarvan’s bay. The sun was warming on my strength, heart, and face. Sitting on the cold Earth, balancing the spring breeze as the tide is out and yet the boats are buoyed. The water and rocks are clear and the beauty of the land is green when near. A haze fell upon the latter land, almost as in a picture. Cars were hushed as nature belted. The smell was salty and the air crisp as the wind moved time and tide. The feelings of calmness, peacefulness, security, and home came to me as I breathed in the scent, the strength, the warmth, the crispness, the growing of the world. The sound laid still as the nature flailed. It was amazing to just, ‘be.’