If I had the money,
if I had the time,
I’d buy a big old car
and drive to the oceanside.
Might be in the morning,
maybe late at night,
the stars might be shining,
or the sun might be bright.
And when the evening came,
I’d walk along the shore,
......
From ocean's wave a Wanderer came,
With visage tanned and dun:
His Mother, when he told his name,
Scarce knew her long-lost son;
So altered was his face and frame
By the ill course he had run.
There was hot fever in his blood,
And dark thoughts in his brain;
And oh! to turn his heart to good
......
Modern Machinery
We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,
We were melted in the furnace and the pit--
We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,
We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.
Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:
And now, if you will set us to our task,
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!
......
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The Ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.
Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flow’d over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
......
No sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--
No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--
No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
......
Her essence in the breeze,
teasing, tantalizing, tasty.
Piquant pleasures fill his head
powerful, dangerous… unconstrained.
A boy watching, wishing from shore.
joined in imagination and dreams.
Slow shrinking ships at the horizon,
the alter of liquid pleasure.
......
Let me wash myself in the current of your gentle waters,
Where the caress of your wave’s cleanses not just my skin,
But the very essence of who I am, leaving me reborn.
Let me drink deeply from the fountain of your love,
Each drop a sweet elixir that quenches a thirst of my soul,
Pour me till it fills the emptiness within me,
Leaving me to drown in the endless ocean of your love.
Let me gaze in the garden you’ve nourished with your grace,
Wandering through fields where flowers bloom in your name,
......
Every wave overpowers the previous,
Each stronger than before.
An endless cycle of crashing upon tides rolling back.
They seen to constantly strengthen,
But the beach will never be overtaken.
Moments of strength will fade,
Making the next much more powerful.
11/15/23
Ocean waves transform to music through the ears,
The sunset an original painting for the eyes.
Cold wind washes the body in peace,
The salty air a feast for the mind.
11/14/23
If I had the money,
if I had the time,
I’d buy a big old car
and drive to the oceanside.
Might be in the morning,
maybe late at night,
the stars might be shining,
or the sun might be bright.
And when the evening came,
I’d walk along the shore,
......