SEA CHANGE?
We typically live not a century here.
And most of us travel less farther than near.
It’s said, “Change is good,” though just few travel far,
But see such variety – Fortunate are!
So what of the many who stay near where born?
Are they, by comparison, lost and forlorn
To never experience what can be found
By venturing forth from their home’s holy ground?
Whenever return to my city of birth,
I notice what’s changed during time on this earth
And also what hasn’t since I was a child –
The cherished familiar seems somehow defiled.
But what of those people who stay in one place?
How do they perceive evolution’s slow pace?
Unlike me as prodigal, witness they all –
Old blocks renovated for new shopping mall.
One annual pilgrimage all of my life,
From childhood with parents, to present with wife,
Occurs to a place where time seems to stand still —
Where what it was was and what it will be will.
Atlantic, Pacific – one’s always in reach.
From East Coast or West, just select nearest beach
To which I will travel each summer again
Like salmon that’s drawn back to spawn in the end.
Though motels have changed, many restaurants too,
The ocean remains as exactly I knew.
The waves I dove into when I was a kid
Continue to knock me around as they did.
The ocean is ageless and from it I draw
A drop from the Fountain of Youth I crave for.
The ocean is constant, no matter how old,
And when I’m within it, I’m timeless as gold.
(Published in WESTWARD QUARTERLY, Spring 2014, p. 14)
Author Bio:
I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.