Beach Walk


 Sadly we did not get to the beach at all this summer. With COVID and the newer variants, it just didn't happen. Still I love being at the beach, not necessarily to sit in the hot sun or swim distances which is harder to do there, and swimming is not one of my stronger skills.

 I like to walk on the beach and pay attention to waves and how they creep up or crash in, and how footprints in the sand gradually disappear each time the waves come in. 

Here's a poem I wrote years ago after an early morning walk on the beach at Southampton.


Beach Walk

Take the sandy path

along the water's edge

at dawn


only the cry of soaring gulls

and soft lapping of waves

washing the golden sand


seagulls rest on rock islands

in the mist

where a finger of land

points into the lake


see the treasures scattered on the beach

a slice of rock

remnant of nature's force

fragile shells, empty of life

and branches, stripped of bark and roughness


sit on the rock in the quiet of dawn

listen to the music of the earth

let it wash away sorrow and sadness

like the gull paddling with the current

resist not its healing touch.


Published in Writers Undercover, volume x, Cambridge Writers Collective, 2004

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