My Favourite Seaside Poem

Here I want to include the one poem I always think of when I am by the sea...it rushes through my thoughts and as I walk barefoot on the shell strewn beach, I recite it aloud to myself and the gulls and the surf. It so well describes the feelings I have with nothing but sea and sky to contemplate, and that is exactly what there is here on Sanibel Island off the western coast of Florida.

SEA FEVER

by John Masefield

I MUST down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life.
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.