The Return--Part 1.
- Mary Oliver
When I went back to the sea
it wasn't waiting.
Neither had it gone away.
All its musics were safe and sound: the circling gulls
were still a commonplace, the fluted shells
rolled on the shore
more beautiful than money-
oh, yes, more beautiful than money!
the thick necked seals
stood in the salted waves with their soft, untroubled faces
gazing shoreward-
oh, bed of silk,
lie back now on your blackness your fields of sunlight
that i may look at you.
i am happy to be home.
Poems, and short ones at that, are all i have time for these days.
