Redefining a walk along the beach

New to blogging, I’m trying to generate my own content, but here is a poem I cannot resist sharing. It’s one of my long time favorites, and perfectly describes the sensations and emotions of a walk along the beach. It appears on a blog I like called – happily enough – Sea Fever.

That blog name makes me pout a bit. I wish I could have named my blog that. Though really, Tidal Life is more apropos to what I write about, and Sea Fever’s blogger, Peter Mello, deals with topics of ships and shipping, so I try not to begrudge him the name.

Here’s the poem.

SEA FEVER by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

That line about the wind like a whetted knife gets me every time. Yes, tears.

Sea Fever, read by the author, John Masefield

And while we’re redefining a walk along the beach wouldn’t it be amazing to go down to the sea again for a walk with StrandBeest, a wind powered kinetic sculpture by Theo Jansen.

Art, poetry, invention, thinking, feeling. All great reasons why public beach access is vital.