October 6, 2014
This morning I walked out to our patio and that same morning gift had arrived. I moved in the direction of the ocean and paused to take in that calming, memorable smell of October ocean.
October 16, 2012
I wrote the poem below in early October, 2011. Yesterday, I opened my upstairs door that faces the ocean. That same morning gift greeted me for the first time this fall. To preserve that moment I share the poem again.
Oh to be able
To gather for you
The fresh smell of ocean
That greets me
As I walk to the garden this morning.
It o’rtakes any others
That I might sense:
The remnant of a passing diesel truck,
The faint odor of skunk
Or bacon cooking.
Today, I have ocean—
Honest and pure,
Unlike the advertised scent
On boxes of dryer sheets.
My mind holds
The image of the waves
As I walked along the cliffs
Last evening.
And the fragrance of ocean
Is my morning gift.
Susan Martin
