Undercurrents Series

“Undercurrents” Series Artist Statement

“The world below the brine, forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle openings, and pink turf, different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light through the water..”

-Walt Whitman

We were once content
To leave those depths unexplored
Secure in Ocean’s eternal majesty.

To measure Eternity,
we looked at the tides, the voices of the waters,
the breakers of the sea…

Many fish in the sea, we said.
(we meant forever).

Think. Now is the time of our discontent. Who knew
there could be deserts in the oceans? Strange flows, too,
carrying the shards of earthly hubris
to all the hungry mouths
of the sea.

But sometimes I choose to simply sing
That which is, and swims, or slithers
The rocks, coral, grass and rushes
Undulating on the sand
the play of light through the water.

-Eve J. Alfille