The Gulf

The Gulf
 
The deep viridian of the Gulf pulses
with wave after wave, the sun
on the surface more beautiful than gold.
 
Everywhere is the precious entity
of the water and the waves,
the stream of aeons of luminous life.
 
In the distance, the gilt of the horizon
spreads across the miles and miles of sea,
a stunning setting to an enormous sapphire.
 
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The sea has always been my companion.  I remember visiting it as a child -- first the Gulf of Mexico, then the Pacific Ocean -- and wondering about what exotic places were beyond the waves.  As I grew older, my sense of adventure also grew.  I remember reading Horatio Hornblower books by C.S. Forester  and The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat.  Later, I would visit the Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Japan. I started to scuba dive and dove the 80 foot wall in Cozumel and the Flower Gardens in the Gulf of Mexico.I was both terrified and fascinated at the same time.   In the early days of my career, I wanted to study oceanography and marine biology.  There was no place that I felt more at home than on a ship with the waves rolling underneath and the spray on the bow. I wrote my very best poem about the sea when I was 18.  It is still my favorite. Someday, I may share it on this blog... but I cannot now.  It is an intimate communication between me and the ocean, and still so much a part of me. Every time I visit the ocean, I am consumed by wanderlust. I look beyond the gold horizon and I want to be at sea, sailing, moving across the waves to another place,  an exciting place of new people and new stories, a place beyond the dreariness of the modern, earthbound existence. Every time I go to the beach, I pick up a special shell for luck and whisper my wishes for adventure into it and wait.