When you lived in my ocean,
our connection was inseparable.

When you emerged onto land,
I was still part of your universe.

When you ventured deeper into
the landscape I watched, I worried.

When you returned to my shore,
I welcomed you home again.

Dr Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is the first woman Suffolk County Poet Laureate (2009-2011). She is the founder and president of the Long Island Poetry & Literature Repository, publisher of The North Sea Poetry Scene Press, and the editor of Long Island Sounds Anthology and other anthologies. She has penned 6 chapbooks, a memoir: The Long Way to Home, a children’s book, Would You Hug a Porcupine, two full-length books of poetry, Chasing Clouds and If I Could Only Bottle This, collected scholarly essays, and a book on the healing power of poetry