To Contemplate the Sea

It’s an experience many of us have shared: You are strolling along an ocean beach at sunset and suddenly you have an urge to stop, look up, listen and smell the sea air. For a few brief moments you are caught up in a meditative trance as you ponder the beauty of the sky and the sea and how you came to be standing on this beach, at this time and in this place. The poem below might be your experience.

What does it mean to me to contemplate the restless sea,

As the waves fold upon the shore in hypnotic reverie?

The sea washes over me, my feet sink in the sand,

No firm ground beneath me to make a final stand.

I see the white birds come and scatter in the tide,

I hear their cry echo in the wind fading far and wide.

Oh, the billowing clouds that soak up the sun’s last rays,

They hang upon the horizon and drift their separate ways.

What is it about the sea that separates us from all care?

The sea seems indifferent to me despite a beauty far too rare.

How small we must seem to this blue green ocean sea,

So much bright sky and dark water running before me.

I cannot help but feel alone in such an open space,

I breathe deep the sea salt air that holds me to this place.

Standing on the edge of the earth, my back against the sand,

I contemplate the restless sea and ponder the fate of man.