All the Colors of God

By Joergen Ostensen

6.27.19

I wrote this poem in South Africa. The image of the rainbow is a constant presence there and has been since the revolution in 1994. While South Africa still has a long, long way to go in order to realize the dreams of that revolution, there were so many moments during my time there that offered a glimpse of what might someday be. In my mind it is not accurate to make a simple statement about the present in South Africa. It is truly a wonderfully complex nation. This poem is an attempt to capture one of those moments. I was walking along the southern coast watching the waves. As the poem describes, the crashing waves caught the sunshine, producing rainbows. It was beautiful in the most perfect sense of the word. So much of South Africa's history is the story of tragedy, however, in moments like this it is possible to see into the future.

Here they come in the brilliance of the day

Each following the last

Like so many charging white horses

Rising and falling in the soft sunlight

Churning sand up before them

As they draw nearer and nearer

Together now in incessant succession

One and then the next .

One and then the next

As mist is thrown heavenwards

From the the depths into sunlight

At the mercy of this elemental collision

Here as for a moment all the colors of God

Race along behind each crashing wave

Like the manes of so many charging white horses.

One and then the next

As now all the colors of God shine in the sea spray

And every color comes true in the sunlight

Rising like the flowing manes

Of so many charging white horses

Each now in the form of a rainbow

Here in the brilliance of the day.