This is the Sea

One of the joys of being here is being surrounded by the spectacular beauty of the coastline and the ever-changing sea. The poem below is inspired by those surroundings, as well as by other aspects of life here, but hopefully it speaks for itself. Meanwhile, although no photo (at least not any taken by me) can do justice to the views here, I thought I'd share some seascapes taken on recent walks around the area.

The whisper of babbling cliff-side streams

Drowned out

By a wall of waves

A voice that roars

With heart-felt fears

And aching agony

As unyielding cliffs

Say no

To changing and moving

And yet

They do

Rocks hard as

Rock

Yet cracked and worn

Imperceptibly

By mere droplets

While the moon pulls

As heart-strings wrench

With memories and pain

And thus

The ebb and flow

Of half-told stories

Whispered

Through reflected prisms of light

And dark

And the backwash draws

With subtle sighs

Its debris

Into the deep

Each stone

Alone

Dragged

And tossed or torn

And drowning

Yet in this monotony

Or multitude

Of grey

A colour also speaks

And from the depths

The restless roll and swell

Of legacies

And unsolved histories

Never still

Or stopped by will

Twisted

By time and tide

To different meanings

And a hundred half-truths

Which are a whole truth

To him or her

Or you

Or me

Seeking

In the crashes of confusion

To be singled out

And heard

Amidst unceasing energy

Of darkening waves

Or on the bright white froth

That flies on wistful gusts

This is the sea

But up above

The trickle of a tiny stream

Still sings

And the heart soars