Sunday, August 9, 2009

One Single Impression -- Ocean

Indelible Ocean


In winter dreams
the grey Pacific
rolls endless breakers,
ghosts of salt spray
and drying kelp
sting the nose,
my soul bent
like Monterrey pines
to the wind
echoing through
memory.

©sgreerpitt
Saturday August 8, 2009

You can take the girl away from the ocean, but you can't take the ocean away from the girl. Looking back at the poems of my youth spent on the San Francisco peninsula, the vast majority invoked the ocean in some form.

and the sky fell off on either side
mixed with sea and city.


For other poems on the prompt "ocean" see One Single Impression.

15 comments:

Sherri B. said...

This is so beautiful...

my soul bent
like Monterrey pines
to the wind
echoing through
memory.


You're so lucky to have grown up near the ocean...I dream of living close to the water someday.

anthonynorth said...

You took me straight to the shoreline there.

zoya gautam said...

and the sky fell off on either side
mixed with sea and city
..

_ that is poetry about ..

many thanks for a charming poem ..

Maggie said...

Sue,
My husband was born in the Bay area and loved the ocean...He was like a duck in water and I am sad to say...I never learned to swim.

When my youngest daughter would take me to the gulf shores for vacation...I could smell the salt air long before we saw the water.

I love watching the ocean waves.

Deborah Godin said...

Really lovely! I think most of us get imprinted on some place at some point in our lives, not necessarily the place we knew first, but a place that will always call to us.

Tammie Lee said...

Your poem takes me there as well. Memories.... of living near the ocean. Thank you.

Jim said...

An indelible impression here. I have one too of the Bay Area, I spent only a month there but it was respite for me from a souring marriage.
Thank you,
..

lissa said...

lovely, dreamy, love the "and the sky fell off on either side mixed with sea and city. " line

Bobbie said...

*drool* at that picture

Lovely writing! It was like I was there.

Tumblewords: said...

The sea is, to me, more fascinating than almost anything. Your words describe the gray damp of the Pacific in a beautiful fashion.

gautami tripathy said...

I found it very magical..

ravens chase out thoughts from the mind

Anonymous said...

Sue, I live close to the Atlantic, but don't swim it, all my ocean swimming memories are from just north of San Francisco.

You poem is so-- poetic!

gabrielle said...

"and the sky fell off on either side
mixed with sea and city"

It was just like that, my years in the city on the hill. the cypress swept up in her song. memory in the shifting dunes. thank you for taking me back.

Amias (ljm and liquidplastic) said...

How wonderfully refreshing ...


"and the sky fell off on either side
mixed with sea and city."


What an amazing images!

one more believer said...

oh geez, i so agree w/u being raised on the beach...haven't been near a beach in far too long.. you brought in home to my heart...lovely memories indeed