the sea-longing
25 February 2010
That substantial, inexorable regularity
Of waves that wash the shore
Clean from a plenitude of impurities —
The bleach-white sand of childhood,
Memories of simpler times, and days
Untouched by the hoar-frost of misery —
It is that which I crave, as with the longing
Of a lover long-sundered from the beloved;
The images of memories etched in my mind
Blind me to all else, as the desire washes over me,
Like the blue-green-grey waves of the sea.
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delight and glory and oddity and light 
There is something about a beach, and the ocean waves, that is cleansing and simplifying. And there is nothing like the beaches and waves of our childhood.
This one is the yearning of memory.
I grew up (and have lived most of my life) only a couple hours drive from the pristine white sands of the Gulf. I spent countless days as a kid there. There is something about the sea that calls to me, that has a deep impact on my state of mind, my life. When I haven’t been there in a while, I start to miss it. Even to feel…an almost impossible urge to go. To walk barefoot in the sand. To feel and smell the salty sea-pray. To smell the salty air, tinged with that smell of sea life (that some people unfavorably call “fishy”).
I think there is definitely a need for a trip south coming on…
If you grow up by the ocean, you need her for always.
That is so very true.
Hmm… for me the ocean calls up memories less nostalgic. They always hold an undercurrent of dread because water is not a comfortable element for me, wrapping with suffocation in large amounts, though I can swim and have neither drowned nor come near to the experience.