Seagulls, the sea and a song (reprise #2)

8 of 10 in the Jemverse series ‘Music II’

Alone on the shingle
Salt in my mouth
Braced against wind
Looking to South
Out there in the green
Waves rise and fall
As I listen again
To familiar call
A song just for me
The swoop and the cry
The sea and its music
As seagulls fly by

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

[‘Seagulls, the sea and a song‘ was originally posted to Jemverse in April 2016, re-visited in January 2018 and reposted today]

Something about

Something about the hand of the sea
and the tactile nature of things
it leaves in its wake for people to find
to pull at many heart strings

Something about the smooth of the feel
and the salt blended into the grain
that brings inspiration to a poet's mind
for words that will always remain

Something about the beauty that's there
it some flotsam often quite small
for a treasure that's found to have and to hold
is the 'je ne sais quoi' of it all

©Jemverse

Driftwood sculpture by the author from flotsam found on Sussex shores (Photo – Jempics)

Wavefall

Went for a walk on the beach
in the morning
at first light of day when
most still were snoring
It was quiet and peaceful
just the sound of the sea
and the crunch of the shingle
the wave fall and me

©Jemverse

Photo – Sally Croucher

Two Dodoitsus (II – Sunday)

And so to the beach again
for ocean's cooling water
Sunday blisters relentless
yet this gift is here

©Jemverse

[A dodoitsu is a four-line Japanese non-rhyming poetic form with a syllabic sequencing of 7-7-7-5] 

Seagulls on the wing

Seagulls flying on the wing
on the beach as I
sit outside my beach hut
and watch them hover by
Indicative of all that is
a life beside the sea
this vista with the seagulls
is here a part of me

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Encore

The waves are thundering on the shore
as the sunshine makes a show
and whooping we cry out for more
of that music down below

All of a sudden mercury rises
as temperatures start to soar
so as we welcome nice surprises
we all cry out for more

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

One XI

11 of 12 in the ’12 months V’ series from Jemverse

With 'Dog Days' just beginning
July the first is here
for long hot days of summer
the ones I most revere
A child of summer born and bred
these are the days for me
getting browner in the sunshine
on the beach beside the sea

©Jemverse

Photo – Sally Croucher

[The ‘dog days of summer’ are historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system ‘Sirius’ (known colloquially as the ‘dog star’). Hellenistic astrology connected Sirius with heat and the Greeks knew it as ‘scorcher’, a derivative transcription of the Egyptian word ‘spdt’].

The last West Pier II

Part of the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse

I found it on the high tide line
after a night of fire
the Grand Old Lady of the sea
destroyed by spite and ire
Yet carried on an ebbing tide
along the coast to me
a memory of those boards I trod
now rescued from the sea
So though her grandeur is no more
complete her fall from grace
Brighton's West Pier always will
in history have her place

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics – Brighton’s closed West Pier, early 1980’s (pre fires).

On 28 March 2003 the pavilion at the end of the derelict West Pier in Brighton caught fire. Always presumed to have been the work of arsonists, yet never proven, it was still the final death knell for the grand old lady. Opened back in 1866 and surviving two world wars, the pier was sadly closed to the public in 1975. However, I still have fond memories of walking its promenade decks back in the 60s and early 70s. Who knows, I could have trodden the very board fragment I rescued and which now has pride of place in my back garden.

The pier head, summer 2002

My salvaged board fragment

Beaches

Looking out 'cross windswept beaches
though this one's far from home
a familiar feeling warms me
from all the views I've known
For here I'm in my element
close to the sea, my heart
a synergy that's part of me
and has been from the start

©Jemverse

Photo – the beach at Camber Sands, East Sussex, looking West – Jempics

Easter’s Grace II

Once some several years ago
In hallowed ground near here
I bowed and offered humber prayer
the beach and sea quite near
A little chapel on the shore
at Easter time at home
with crown of thorns up on the wall
for people to atone
And now as then on Saturday
the sun becomes the son
as at Easter his forgiveness
is complete for everyone

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics