The first ocean I ever saw was the Mediterranean—at dusk, beneath antiquity’s ruins—. While standing amidst the marble strewn sands, the sun stretched out where the heavens meet the water’s curve and splashed its radiance on Poseidon’s wavy peaks. 
More than 30 summers later, I gaze out again from a Mediterranean shore. What a day—our day at the beach. Playing in the sand, holding Helen above the waves, paddle boating with Jay to the buoys’ edge. Watching Joel bury Breck in the sand and Kim absorbing the sun—Now, months later and miles away, I realize that one of life’s greatest gifts is memory.
When I look out into a starry nightWith air so cold it cracks my darkened rhymes,
My soul in anguish longs for sorted flight
To distant shores of sands in ancient times.
So, take me back to Arthur’s dancing kingdom,
Where laughter blends with sunlit skies at noon.
And knights consort with poets' fabled freedom,
And all of Nature’s breath reflects his tune—
To heroes lost except in classic lore,
Where proud the banners waved with deeds for good—
And supernaturals help defeat the foe,
When man or woman’s heart cried out in woe.
I long to see where strength and honor stood
And welcome forth the past to modern shores.
Deb Borkert ‘11
