Saturday, April 25, 2015

I Must Go Down To the Sea Again


I like it when the prompt so naturally fits me, that poetry simply comes, and I hardly have to think of it. Our prompt today was "across the sea" and I am somewhat enamoured of the Sea at the best of times. Nowadays, I am also working on a story about the Sea, so I have been reading about the Sea. And looking at pictures of the Sea. And listening to Sea songs. And reading other people's Sea-centered poetry. So, obviously, I was just itching for a chance to write my own Sea poem.

This one is sort of connected to my story - I needed a bit of poetry for a character to recite, and I had not gotten around to looking for any yet, so this is very likely going to end up in the mouth of my main character - I was thinking about him when I wrote it:

This bit of Earth has been my home.
Rock and sand have grounded me.
And I have loved the cedar tall, 
The coast-pine and the apple-tree.
But Autumn's come, and tastes of salt,
I must go back to the Sea.

Her currents run through all my blood.
My name she calls and sings to me.
I cannot bear the touch of Earth.
I'll loose my boat and set her free,
Take the Sea-Road to the West - 
I must go back to the Sea.


2 comments:

PiperoftheStrait said...

“I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came."
John F. Kennedy
[Remarks at the Dinner for the America's Cup Crews, September 14 1962]

Although I know we all came from God I must say, I have always felt that call to the sea. Tis like a friend always there; not to judge us but to listen to us or to just be with us and give us peace.
I have stood on the shore to watch the sea and I have sailed the oceans and I have Mahri, felt that longing to go back.
Arthur

PiperoftheStrait said...

And a favorite poem of mine:


Sea Fever




By John Masefield



I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.



I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.



I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.