Message in a Seashell's Shanty Melody
Far inland, in the cold and gloomy,
misty wooded mountains,
I huddled up to an open fire.
I picked up a large conch shell,
clad in mother of pearl,
resting by the fireplace and listened,
eye-to-ear, to its bottled,
shanty message.
I heard the soft familiar,
sweet hissing sound,
of the ocean’s breath.
Not a roar, not a crash,
but akin to
a mother weeping with joy.
to have her lost child back,
in the arms of the sea.
The sound surged and waned,
with wave-like surges
breaking and rolling in a lilting lullaby.
Ebbing with the tide,
receding in a glide,
en-gracing in its slide,
into my consciousness.
For some like me, are sea creatures,
devoted lovers of the sea,
that the sea loves to welcome back.
The sea never forgets.
It casts its seashells adrift,
far and wide,
with a message within,
to lure its lovers back home
to 'Mater Mare', the sea.
Copyright ©
John Anderson
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