Melancholia By The Sea Poem by David Whalen

Far below,
on misted beach
My ears perceive
The seabirds screech

They hear the rush Of rising tide
Sense the fleeting feel
Of licentious beach
To which both strand…And sea abide

I hear (and observe)
Without reserve
This elemental
Communion

Which beckons forth
My melancholy side
That yearns
To be in union

With rocks and sea
That will always be
An integral and important
Part of me

The seamounts bedecked
With seaweed so rife
Strands strewn thick with vestiges
Of both death… and of life

It arouses in me
Such melancholy
As to steal away
My very breath

Why this attraction
Which the sea
Works upon me and
Feels so akin to death

Yet it beckons to me
And I’m oh, so powerless you see
To resist this pull
The sea works upon me

And compulsively calls me
Back to Monterey Bay
and arouses anew,
my melancholy
…By the sea…