La Mer

We've just returned from a few days near the sea, in a small Devon town called Teignmouth to be precise.

Music fans, and particularly those of a rock persuasion, may have heard of this sleepy little coastal hamlet thanks to it being the birthplace of Muse, but they have long since vacated it to play their sci-fi tinged classical rock (or whatever you want to call it - I just call it great) all over the globe.

While they have abandoned Teighmouth, however, the sea has remained, as it has all around this green and pleasant isle, and regardless of how far inland I normally reside, I always feel a calling.

The sea is my eternal mistress. She fascinates me as she calls, dances, seduces, entices, ebbs, flows, and kills, a timeless body that is dark, delightful and dangerous.

I feel a deep, almost spiritual sense of calm when I am near the sea. Perhaps there's something to the theory that as the moon pulls the tides to and fro by way of gravity, our blood also ebbs and flows through our veins in thrall to our nearest neighbouring planetoid.

She, and the sea is a she - such a mass of delicious contradictions and passions could never be male, is ruled by no earthly force, deferring only to the moon. Since time began she has held man in her gentle, deadly grip, and following in a long, long line of sandy footsteps, I believe that if ever I were to end my life prematurely, I would give it to her, just start walking and not stop until it was as if I were never there............which brings me nicely to this poem, written by yours truly while gazing at the sea a couple of years ago.


Never There

I sit and watch you
As you lap at my feet
Playful
Teasing
Inviting
But I know your motives.

Outwardly calm, but beneath your
Placid surface there lie
A thousand bloated souls
Seduced
Captivated
Called
And I know that this too is my fate.

I have tried to resist you,
But each night you call
Rhythmic
Persistent
Relentless
And finally I cannot deny you.

The sun hangs low in the sky
As I stand and begin to walk,
My body increasingly enveloped by you
Until your surface is still once more.
It as is though I were never there.