How to Survive a Tsunami

How to Survive a Tsunami appeared in the December 2025 issue of The Poetry Lighthouse. 

It was also part of a 2025 Mutual Muses exhibit at the Cotuit Center for the Arts.

The best way to survive a tsunami
is to not be where it
happens.

This can be harder than you might
think. We’re attracted
to the wild,

to the places where we learn
about ourselves. What
we’re made of.

Some people are in fact the most
violent tsunamis: we know
who they are

and yet we still put ourselves in
their path, as though daring
the wave

to drown us. It’s a gamble, letting
them in: the outcome might
be fatal.

Safety’s an illusion once we realize
what we’re addicted to…
…is the storm.