Dave White’s Raging Sea (February 14, 2025) and Kiana Jimenez’s A Raft to Drift Upon form a powerful meditation on survival, love, and resilience in the face of overwhelming chaos. Together, they tell a story of being caught in life’s storms yet refusing to be consumed by them.

The illustration commands attention with its vast, unrelenting ocean. Waves surge and crash in layers of blue, teal, and white, capturing the rhythm of nature’s fury. Above, the sky is torn open with streaks of lightning, its clouds a roiling canvas of green, black, and gold. In the midst of this tempest, a lone figure clings to a fragile raft—small, vulnerable, yet unwavering. Against the immensity of the sea, the raft is both defiance and hope.

The poem A Raft to Drift Upon becomes the voice of this struggle. It speaks of love, warmth, and hope as shelter amid the storm, the light that persists when despair threatens to drown. Each stanza unfolds as a reminder of the quiet powers that keep us afloat:

“The warmth of a fire when the cold bites deep,
A whisper of calm where fears may sleep.”

Where the illustration shows the force of the external storm, the poem reveals the inner one. The raging sea becomes the metaphor for emotional turmoil, grief, and despair, while the raft embodies resilience—the power of love, memory, and faith that allows one to keep moving forward.

Together, art and poem are not about defeat but endurance. The storm may rage endlessly, but there is always something to hold onto. The raft, fragile yet steadfast, carries us through the crashing waves and reminds us that peace is possible—that light will always break through the clouds.