Beach Impressions
A recent visit to the Oregon coast generated several hundred photographs and this poem, a series of three line stanzas about what I saw and felt as I explored this rugged coastline.
Stretched thin along the horizon line
the grey mist grows,
approaching slow and thick.
Beneath the cotton wisp of clouds
the white birds fly
free and far they roam.
A roiling foam invades the shore
the green water flows
back and forth against the tide.
The sound the charm to lure me in
the hypnotic siren’s call
to heed the past of lessons learned.
The driftwood lay like Roman forms
relics from another time,
smooth and white in their nakedness.
Patterns in the wet sand and shadows
where tidal pools form
full of creatures expelled from the deep.
The fading sun obscured in mist,
a ghostly orb that
settles in sleep upon the sea.
Meditate on this moveable feast,
the human presence wanes
where the sea claims its majesty.
This solemn beach on which I stand,
where eternity reigns
and I am left to wonder why.