Shoreline Liminality

Read time: 1 min.


Consider the in-between places where the sea meets the land. Sometimes that’s an abrupt concrete wall enforcing artificial separation, other times it’s an inclining sand strip that lets the ocean choose her own naturally changing boundaries. Maybe it’s a rock mound that grants the water fluidity while still enabling the soil to stand its ground. Whatever form that meeting takes, the environment as a whole still encompasses both elements. Nothing truly negates the inherent duality of this meeting ground, for good or ill.

And whatever lies between? That doesn’t have to decide if it belongs more to one or the other; that’s its own third thing. It lives as an ever-changing balance of neither and both worlds, yet the core of its unique, indispensable role remains precisely the same throughout. It creates a new space just as inhabitable as the other two. Maybe half our problem’s that we so seldom let ourselves get comfortable there.

rocky barrier between grassy forest and smooth blue sea
sidewalk through gardens beside river reflecting the sky

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I’m Judith

Or rather the pseudonym I’m currently using here is Judith. That name also belongs to one of my characters, who I gave it to as a test of sorts. My poetry, which centers on translating minor moments into obscure observations, has appeared in various collections under different names. My psyche resides in Mississippi along the Singing River.

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