Long Beach/On The Beach...

...And Down the Memory Hole

Long Beach
On the beach
         sunning
In the waning
          winter
          sun...

            thinking
 back......

My, how time flies;
            and unlike
These noisy gulls
              erratic
In their flight
Before settling down
For the night...

       It was 60
Years ago, now.
           and here
I am, back
To where it all began
          essentially.
     It was in
     the summer
     of '55
            (as time
         is reckoned
     these days here
   on this darkening
     planet) when
               I came
From my formal
Education (having
     dropped
     out
     there, at the end
     of my Junior
     year; having
     experienced
     something
     'spiritual'. to say
     unworldly),
                   looking
                   for...
         something
              I knew
              not what

Like a beachcomber.
                  Yes; now
That I think of it:
               precisely
               like that.

But no; now
That I think of it
Further, I take
That back: I know
                    what
I was looking for.
I was looking for
           Truth.
What I didn't know
Was what that would
Turn out to be
           exactly.
All I knew
            really
Was that my formal
         education
         was over.
         And that I
              was on
             my own

In poorly - at best -
        charted
Territory.  Or
We would have been
          there
         already
                   
                      in
       the eternal
           Now.

            -

I count
         at least
Five different
kinds of gulls
            mostly
            resting
            now
      at this time
      of day.
And some cute
          little bitty
    sandpipers
 scurrying about,
              pecking
 at the wash
 from the ocean...
They remind me
     somehow
Of the oystercatchers
On another beach;
            that one in
The north of Scotland,
                where I
    have spent
    some time
    On my journey
In this sweet world;
                 a pebble
As these things go
                       com-
              paratively...

           -

Well, time to get
         my feet
         wet
                at least
        before
        this day
        is over

              in the
         waning
         sun

                of just
           another
        day
         
      at the shore
      of little
      bitty
      planet
            Earth.

      For what
      it's worth

  when the seagulls
  fight over
  scraps
  before
  settling down
        for
  the night.

        But at least
       they
   can fly.


               ...Sixty
         years
         ago....

               My,
               my.

              it's been
         a long

            long

             time......

                  and I'm
   
         still

             looking.

         -

(Coming to me
 on my wading way
            back
 to my place
 in the sun):

I hear tell
This water is dead
Now.
          But I'm still
              here

        waiting

       for my ship
       to come in,

        my daily bread
              to wash
        ashore.

              Because
        Nature
                 abhors
     a vacuum.