"Seeing The Sea"

(This is a poem I wrote soon after moving to Washington. We live on the very western coast and the ocean is very close.)


The waves stretch out before my weary eyes,
A line of blue that never stops moving.
The sun beams down, rays of yellow light
That become clear as diamonds when they hit the top of the sea.
I have never seen anything like this before,
I, a child of mountains and flatlands.
The sea has always been a mystery to me,
Not something that I would expect to be living near.
The air is cooler here, the musk of salt ever present in the air
As I sit on my driftwood seat, a log from somewhere far away.
The sun is warm on my face, but it doesn't burn my dark head
Like it would ordinarily do at home.
The colors shift and change as the water ebbs in and out.
I smile at the chatter of the sea gulls and the exasperated shouts of fisherman.
Uncertainty drains away from me until I am truly at rest
For the first time in many moons.
I know where I must live to have my peace.
I must live seeing the ocean.