Begin to Learn to Read the Sea

Begin to learn to read the sea
Look up and out and understand
the patterned waves, the rosary
of ripples written upon the sand.
Hark to the tide’s slow-tolling bell
forget the rhythms of life on land
learn moons and heights and learn them well
walk on the ever-changing strand.
What is the sound you might have heard
sucked down under the rolling swell?
Did tossed-up flotsam form a word?
Long-strand seaweed scrawl as it fell?
These are hints and guesses, not ABC.
You have to learn to read the sea.

6th July 2010