Deep Sea Diver Poem, by Robert Francis

Hey everyone. This is one of my favorite poems (not because it's some Frost-rivaling masterpiece, but because it expresses the awe of touching the unknown through scuba diving). I first found it in 7th grade in the reading comprehension section of my annual standardized test. Since well before 7th grade I was familiar with scuba diving through my family members, and eager to learn when I was old enough. So luckily the questions relating to the poem were quite easy for me, and I had a couple extra minutes to read the poem 2 more times so I could remember it and look it up later. Well, I never bothered to look it up again until 2 years ago when I was entering college. It's probably the only relatively famous poem I know of that relates directly to scuba diving, but I never hear about it among scuba divers, so I thought I'd share it with you guys. If you guys know of any other good scuba poems please post them!
-Austin



Diver go down
Down through the green
Inverted dawn
To the dark unseen
To the never day
The under night
Starless and steep
Deep beneath deep
Diver fall
And falling fight
Your weed-dense way
Until you crawl
Until you touch
Weird water land
And stand.

Diver come up
Up through the green
Into the light
The sun the seen
But in the clutch
Of your dripping hand
Diver bring
Some uncouth thing
That we could swear
And would have sworn
Was never born
Or could ever be
Anywhere
Blaze on our sight
Make us see.

Deep Sea Diver
Robert Francis

Thanks Camshaft!

Love the poem and will definitely use it for my other passion - Scrapbooking!

There was another Scuba related poem I ran across several years ago. It was in the program for one of my friend's father's funeral. I believe it was for Navy hard hat divers. I'll have to look for it.

Paula