Noctiluca scintillans

I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death,
but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.
– George Fox, 1647

Fire in the dark, sparks fly up.
Kai! Kai! – Eat! Eat!
Handfuls of rice, an offering to the Protector spirits of this place.

Tiny luminous dinoflagellates, doing what they must do.
“Seize the moment”, Kristine said.
So, pale as selkies, we slip from the jetty
Into chill salt blackness.
Swim slow in wonder
Galaxy of momentary sparks
around our hands,
our legs.
Glistening like seals.
Naked bodies of luminescence, bathed in flashes of pure radiant beauty.

Ecstasy pours out, and grief,
for all that is, and is lost, and will be lost, and must be lost.
A no-take zone, the vajra tent, this holy isle,
a holding action, brief refuge, still point for a moment,
as the world burns.

Kai! Kai!
Sparks from the ground of love, buoyant in oceanic be-ing.
Our tiny lives are sparks of joy in vastness.

(Holy Isle, Arran, October 2023)

Photo of phosphorescence by mutolisp (CC BY-NC-SA)