Poem: The Story of the Sea

(Point Lobos)

They say the sea is full of tears

that's why it's called the sea

they're gathered up from everywhere 

just how’s a mystery.

It’s all been building up in there

for a hundred million years

some even say the dinosaurs

contributed their tears.

Some people have cold, black sharks

swimming in their eyes

some have jellyfish or shells

others, drowning flies.

The body is a beach of sand

beyond the forests grow

but nothing living can forget

the sea from which we flow.

Look out across the moving

waters from the land.

Some say it seems to call us

to come back again.

But, we’ve left the sea behind 

like so many things

and dried out in the air

into flesh or bark or wings.

Even so, seawater 

flows through our every vein

and flows back to the ocean

from all our joy and pain.

Tears carry off our bitterness

they carry sadness, too

sometimes I cry from happiness

of the love I have for you.

Out of all the tears that flow

salt-spray and tides that turn

clouds and rain, a freshening

this is our return.

They say the sea is full of tears

that’s how the sea has come to be

it’s ebbed and flowed for centuries

why is still a mystery.