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CN
Craig Norris
Aug 21, 2009 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

never knew

I never knew the moon had lost its sway there
that your seas could resist its pull,
that there were no high tide marks
on your rocky ledges,
for the timing of schoolboy adventures
around headlands sheer,
to be back before the waves
cut off the last safe footholds
the last goat trails of retreat.

No tidal pools to peer in
for furtive scurrying crabs
or reluctant starfish,
uncomfortable in heavy brine
their world shrinking
line by salt encrusted line,
waiting for foaming waves
to take them back into the deep.

I have never seen an ocean
that did not retreat
did not advance,
to leave flotsam high upon a beach
and a broad reach
of virgin sand firm and clean
leading to its wave lapping edges,
where you can walk barefoot
and leave no footprints behind,
I think your seas must be very different to mine.

About This Poem

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Country/Region: AUS

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Comments

Seren

Seren

16 years 8 months ago

Dear Craig ,

This one seems very different for you , but I like it , theres a touch of somebody in this writing and I can't put my finger on it , doesnt matter its good though lol well done hope its starting to warm up down there ... take care regards Jayne :) "We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves. Lynn Hall" ...
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Craig Norris

16 years 8 months ago

Hey Jayne

thanks for your comments, I enjoy them, the weather down here was great last week, Spring was here then yesterday we were sent a chilly reminder. cheers. Craig
A

Atticus

16 years 8 months ago

This is spectacular! Such a

This is spectacular! Such a delicate, easy touch to the details. Back and forth, mirroring those waves coming in and slipping out. Cheers to you friend on a great work. -Nathaniel
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Craig Norris

16 years 8 months ago

Nathanial

thank you so much for your comments, I am happy that you enjoyed this modest write, which sprang from a conversation with Molly O in which I learnt that there are no great tidal movements in the Baltic sea, I had always taken for granted I guess the thought that all shorelines would have a tidal flow. Craig.
O

odd molly

16 years 8 months ago

Craig.Your poem is very

Craig. Your poem is very beautiful. I really like the thought of the great sea's diversity and I feel happiness when I see the images of you as a little boy playing exciting games on the beach among starfish and waves. How mighty and powerful is not the forces that control and how magic is not the idea of the salty and the sweet. Beautiful ! o Molly
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Craig Norris

16 years 8 months ago

Molly

you have caused me to dust off my copy of Atlas of the Oceans which is a few years old now and I should probably be thankful for that, because the figures given on chemical inputs from coastal states around the Baltic are not very encouraging, I imagine todays figures would be much higher. One interesting stat. concerns the average residence time for seawater in the Baltic and puts it at thirty five years, I will spare you the other scary information that goes with that. Here in Australia we catch and export all this beautiful seafood and them import fish from fish farms in the heaviest polluted waters off Hong Kong and Thailand. Can't work that out. love. Craig
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odd molly

16 years 8 months ago

yes Craig , I think we could

yes Craig , I think we could discuss this matter for many hours. It is hard to work out and to understand how we can do what we are doing to our Mother Earth.The larm reports about the baltic sea is never ending. The cod are disappearing due to overfishing. Baltic Sea is threatened by increasingly powerful blooms. Environmental toxins and pollutants poisoning our oceans and coasts. Ecologically and economically important ecosystems, seagrass beds, coral reefs and mangrove forests, degraded by human exploitation and climate change. The effects on the marine environment has become increasingly apparent... I am happy though to know that in the last years there has been a decision made by the goverments in the Baltic sea countries to try to save and to take care of the Baltic sea.. This exchange of products such as seafood and fruits etc etc is something that I will never understand.. Love. o molly