For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) its always ourselves we find in the sea

[oddegg]

Went to the coast today.

I love the sea.
And I love old, slightly shabby seaside resorts, especially out of season.

The beautiful curves and lines of 30’s buildings looking hunched and downtrodden in their grubby cream or white paint, and they now house caff’s run by worn-faced women who look out blankly at you over their domain of formica-topped tables and lonely slot machines, and who serve you your tea in thick brown glass mugs.
- Summer Holiday seen through a glass darkly.

I like beachcombing. Picking the best pebbles, the perfect tiny shells – though I prefer the broken ones; spirals of sacred geometry interrupted, pearlised pastel stripes torn through.
The ruin of it suits the surroundings, like the rotting seaweed, the half-decayed seagull above the tide-line.

Nothing should strive for perfection next to the totality of the sea. The competition is too unfair.

Comments

[fredbassett]

Meant to say "captured" in the fist line. Whoops.

Are you sure I can't have an ice cream? What about some sticky rock? Or fish 'n chips???

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

Sticky rock and ice cream? Bound to be sick then! (I shall be forced to eat them myself to save you from yourself ::sigh:: the things I do for you)

[fredbassett]

It's not a proper day out if you aren't ick in the car on the way back.

And I have a house full of shells and rocks and bits of wood picked up on various beaches and I always swear I'll do somethig useful and artistic with them, and I don't, I just keep them and smile at the pretty.

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

I have the world's largest collection of sea shells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you've seen some of it. ...
Steven Wright

Mine's not quite that large, but it's getting there *g*