People who live by the sea
understand eternity.
They copy the curves of the waves,
their hearts beat with the tides,
& the saltiness of their blood
corresponds with the sea.
(Uncle Jerry at Point No Point, Summer 2009)
They know that the house of flesh
is only a sandcastle
built on the shore,
that skin breaks
under the waves
like sand under the soles
of the first walker on the beach
when the tide recedes.
(my happy toes at Monterey, Summer 09, after two years of exile in Jersey.)
Each of us walks there once,
watching the bubbles
rise up through the sand
like ascending souls,
tracing the line of the foam,
drawing our index fingers
along the horizon
pointing home.
"People Who Live" by Erica Jong, from Becoming Light. © Harper Perennial, 1981.
While I am excited by my new region, I will v. much miss the sea. Austin locals assure me that there are lovely lakes and rivers, but for those of us bred/born by the Pacific, it is not the same.
Well, you survived Minnesota and Alaska and Walla Walla... just south of you, there's a great big gulf. My friend Liz swims in a natural pool fed by a spring... she lives in Austin. It's a public pool, and they made the natural work with the manmade. You will make it work, too.
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