with the sea happened
in southeastern Kent.
Had there been other people
on the beach, I would have
felt foolish for crying.
The water and the sky,
a gray-blue mix
of quiet and solitude.
The spots of poppies
among the pebbles,
the smell of licorice.
On my first encounter
with the sea we sat speechless
across from each other.
There was calm,
timid love in the waves
for me.
(Last night I dreamed of the sea, which I don't know, for the first time.)
This immediately puts me in mind of the Emily Dickinson poem, in which she describes the sea never having seen it.
ReplyDeleteI never saw a moor;
I never saw the sea,
Yet know I how the heather looks
And what a billow be.
There is a certain speechlessness that descends when one is faced with the immensity of the sea, even to someone like me who grew up beside the Indian Ocean. You have captured that awe-struck calmness and humility.