What to Read When by the Sea

Reading a book on the beach is something that should be on everyone's bucket list. It's something people always talk about, yet never follow through.

I am guilty of this myself, although I do intend to fulfill that on my next journey to the ocean.

The beach is a combination of calm and chaos, proving that nature couldn't decide what the coin toss read. Water is such a calming spectacle, but when paired with the harsh strength and weight of the wind and the water, it is most certainly a force of which to be reckoned with.

Sand is of the same narrative, warm and beautiful, yet messy and ever present. And it appears to go for miles.

It's places like the beach that remind us how small we really are. Sure, we've walked on the moon, dived deep into the oceanic abyss, and have been to the cold of Antartica. But there is a serene humbleness that comes from standing on the sea edge, staring into the sky only to see where it meets the water, and then you can see no further.

Knowing how helpless and small I would feel in the middle of the ocean, I stand on the beach, awe gazing the sunset.

Before the sun abandons me completely, I choose some poems to read.

Leave your worries by the shore line,

And run your bare feet through the sand,

Let the water be a soft bed,

When you cannot bear to stand,

Make friends with flying seagulls,

And hold the sun up on your palm,

Before you duck beneath the water,

Where the world is mute and calm,

Tell the fish all of your problems,

As they all come swimming past,

When your lungs are close to bursting,

Swim above the waves and gasp,

Let the water hold your sadness,

And wash it right out to the sea,

So like a message in a bottle,

All your worries are set free,

And the sea might make you feel alone,

But the world has troubles too,

For how else do you suppose,

That the ocean got so blue?

-e.h

Dance with the waves,

move with the sea.

Let the rhythm of the water

set your soul free.

-Christy Ann Martine

She loved the sea.

She liked the sharp salty smell of the air,

and the vastness

of the horizons

bounded only by a vault

of azure sky above.

It made her feel small,

but free as well.

-George R.R. Martin

The ocean had a way of calming her soul.

Her sun kissed skin, wavy hair, and salt lips.

She lived for the sea.

For it had an art for telling her story.

There was a comfort in its immensity, making her feel a little less alone.

And as she sat watching the waves kiss the shores, she knew she'd found her home.

-k.a.

Who can face the sea and not inherit its loneliness?

-Olin Ivory

Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backwards.

-E.E. Cummings

Blue is known as a 'sad 'color.

But when I see the ocean,

all my sorrow is washed away.

-A.M.

She smiled at the ocean

because the waves told her story.

r.m. drake

Breath the air, dip your toes into the ocean, and write whatever the waves wash into your mind.

Let the ocean speak.