Diving from the Dhow
"Shark!"
A hoax shout from the beach rings.
It is in fact a young Arabian boy scaring
away the dhows for the smile on his face.
I dive from the edge of the dhow.
The dhow is a boat made of old wood by hand.
It is the most noble and trustworthy vessel on the bay.
The turquoise sea invites me to the ocean floor.
The ocean floor is so beautifully yellow.
I recommend that all should touch the floor.
(Feel free)
I hold my breath.
And then I go for it.
Lower and lower, until it is ten metres deep.
A beautiful warm feeling takes over.
as I touch the sea floor and the soft shifting sand.
I see nothing here in this Indian Ocean today.
Not even a little Arabian boy chasing a small fish.
The world underwater is like the world on land.
Only different in a watery way.
Big, big blue.
How I admire your greatness!
Nothing will ever stop my heart
Like the big, big blue.
So deep is thine scars!
O, big, big blue!
So big that it even eats up
the sunset.
And swallows the sun whole.
And then brings it back up
in the morning
after digesting it.
After giving the sun some rest.
O, big, big blue!
Poseidon does not even exist in you.
You are so great!
My big, beautiful blue.
The ruling prince in the dark Arabian nights.
About This Poem
Written during travels along the East African coast, this poem celebrates the act of diving from a traditional dhow—the handcrafted wooden sailing vessels that have plied the Indian Ocean for centuries. The opening scene sets a playful tone with a local boy's false shark alarm, before the speaker plunges into the turquoise waters. What follows is both a physical descent to the ocean floor and a meditation on the ocean's mythic power. The repetition of "big, big blue" and the direct address ("O, big, big blue!") give the poem an incantatory quality, like a prayer or hymn to the sea. The image of the ocean swallowing the sun and "digesting it" overnight before returning it each morning is both whimsical and profound—suggesting the sea as a cosmic force more powerful than any Greek god like Poseidon. The reference to "dark Arabian nights" grounds the experience in a specific cultural geography where the Indian Ocean has shaped civilizations for millennia.