Home Sweet Home

Navigating with
unfathomable radar
journey's end
in certain death
against all odds
surfing salt Pacific sea
urgent instinct leads
to clear crystal streams
fight raging currents
onward furiously threshing
leaping Nature's obstacles
with Olympian finesse


"Journeys end
In lovers meeting"
eggs and milt
in Redd coalesce
continuity of species
assured, they await
the seaward journey
of their young smolts
( destined to continue
blueprinted Salmon pattern )
..and safely home,
cosmic purpose fulfilled
intrepid heros die

This was an entry for an Allpoetry.com contest with the theme 'Salmon'

Pacific salmon, spawned in fresh water rivers, find their way to sea, where they may remain for some years, but unerringly find their way back to their original freshwater home, fighting mighty battles to reach their estuary, and swimming upstream against the river's current - they spawn, and then die. Science is still baffled by the why and the how of this phenomenon

(c) P.J. Murphy, 2005

pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com