The Sea

I used to love to watch the sea
And gaze out from the shore
Its danger, its mystery, the endless roar
It frightened me with all its depth
Its taking of all I had
And the only thing that it threw back
Decayed, mutilated, destroyed.

I looked into its very depths
Where murky shadows moved
Undine, mermaid and sylkie there
Beyond where I could see
For I could not pass into the deep
For fear and love of the sea

Now I wander far from grace
In an unknown and quiet land
The dry brown earth and open sky
Brown leaves crush in my hand
A safe place – so dry and tame
So far from the water’s edge
And only in my dreams do I pass
Into the ocean’s depth.