The Sea

Nezhukumatathil centers the sea as a beloved environment and source of poetic inspiration for the speaker. The title "Sea Church" casts this setting as a place of worship, making it clear from the beginning that the sea carries a holy resonance for the speaker. It allows her to deepen her connection to her mother and find the raw material for her poems. The fluidity in Nezhukumatathil's representation of the sea emulates the sea itself.

The Speaker's Imagination

Literal descriptions blend with metaphor in such a way that suggests that the poem partly takes place in the speaker's imagination. For example, she asks for a salt church whose walls "hiss / and smoke" in the first stanza (3-4). This reveals that for the speaker, entering the water is the same as entering a sanctified space. Many people perceive a divine presence in nature, and the speaker layers her personal...