The Azure Window, Gozo

The eyes, they are but windows to the soul

The waves, they heave and sigh, they leave and breathe

They linger, tease then draw away

Return with vengeance, bubbles, spray

While sunlight sparkles, droplets fall

Parental fire lights the ocean’s call.

The Azure Window

On one of the corners of Gozo, itself an island within Malta, the Azure Window throws a striking bridge of rock out into the sea. It’s a spot much loved by tourists, even more so after its role in TV hit Game of Thrones and I arrived with the blaze of autumn sunshine just before the sunlight faded.

It’s a beautiful place, as the photos make clear, but what fascinated me more was how long people stayed and stared – myself included. In part, that was for practical purposes (the bus only comes once an hour.)

Yet, in part, it felt poetic, watching all those eyes watching waves and weather-wearied stone. And if eyes are the window to the soul, what happens when those eyes gaze into other windows? Do we see the soul of nature? Or are we simply waiting for a bus?

Anyway, I sat down to write a straightforward travel piece but found these words instead. They’re a little experimental but if you can’t experiment with words on your own blog then where can you go to play?

Hope you enjoy – and even if you don’t, I hope you get there one day. It really is a beautiful spot.

The Azure Window, Malta

The waves, they heave and sigh, they leave and breathe

They linger, tease then draw away

Return with vengeance, bubbles, spray

While sunlight sparkles, droplets fall

Parental fire lights the ocean’s call.

The people, too, they smile and pose

There’s laughter, scrambling, foamed wet toes

And cameras, shutters, “look at me!”

Hunched shoulders gaze reflectively

And squinted eyes with seaside glare

Glimpse for a moment, a soul laid bare

Pausing heartbeats, blinking eyes,

With nature’s quiet, passions rise

Ideas and memories, desires and dreams

Those things forgotten

Life’s grandest themes

Found

Then

Found in nature’s rhythm, speed

Her ruthless beauty, trusting creed

The voice that speaks

No word but deed

To eyes that listen

Get up, believe

Your time is short,

To dream and breathe,

While sunlight washes,

Darkness too

Across rocks and lives and oceans blue,

But violet scars the water’s edge,

Within the caves and limestone dredge,

Be still and breathe, yes, pause, reflect

Then turn to action, genuflect

At this great world,

At cause, effect

Age beckons you, or else neglect,

So carpe diems,

Seize them now

Before you can’t remember how

Disclosure

I visited the Azure Window in Gozo as part of an iAmbassador project with support from Visit Malta. A s ever, as always, all words are mine.