As you grow closer
you sense its power,
A kind of gravity
that bends the air and light
like a bow stretched taut
across a newborn sky.
You know the sea in pictures, 
A distant frozen horizon,
the eager waves in ragged lines,
Exhausted runners race and lunge
To finally rest
Prone upon the jagged shore.
But reality transcends
Mere words and film;
Assaulting every sense-
Fickle sun uneasy glints
Off a reckless surface;
The sound of waves
Pummel the sand
As gulls wheel and cry above,
Cautious in courting rare refuge,
knowing their time in the sky
Will end now and then.
The wind comes
With ripples and swells,
perhaps jealous of unrelenting tides;
The same air surrounds and holds you;
A mother caressing her child
Lost upon the land
Now found.
But for me
The rich smell of salt
Most defines the sea,
Primordial, wild and free,
Braced upon the sand
With bleached air all around
We are forever changed,
Even in the stillness
Of far mountains
And forgotten shores.
We are drawn you and I
To remember the place we began
And will one day surely return,
The salt clings to us as we sleep
And dream of sand and sea
And home.
whoisfenton 