Lessons of the Ocean (Sandcastle 15.07)

Seagull flying

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What I had come to the ocean to learn
is not what the ocean chose to teach.
I stood on the shore and stared at the blue
horizon well out of reach.

I curled my toes in grains of sand
and turned toward the salt-kissed breeze.
But voiceless it whispered in unlearned tongues,
dark secrets from the deeps.

What I had come to the ocean to learn
was balance and peace of mind.
The laughing gulls in circling flocks
teased, “That, you’ll never find!

You’ve come to the bay for peace, you say?
You think it’s hidden in the sands?
Inside a shell, under stones, or across
the waters to distant lands?”

I thought the blue could cure me
in this sacred, ancestral place.
I thought my stress would wash away
as easily as footprints erase.

But what I had come to the ocean to learn
is not what the ocean taught.
I turned my back to the salty sea
And went elsewhere to find what I sought.

10.16.19


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I'm an award-winning fantasy author, artist, and photographer from La Porte, Indiana. My poetry, short fiction, and memoir works have been featured in various anthologies and journals since 2005, and several of my poems are available in the Indiana Poetry Archives. The first two novels in my Chronicles of Avilésor: War of the Realms series both received the Literary Titan Gold Book Award in 2020.

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