Apart From Worldly Things

Spellbound

The sky had always beckoned me
with blue as far as I could see,
and clouds of castles, mountains, beasts—
a vast expanse from west to east.
It made me wonder as I'd gaze
from fields below on summer days;
how far away could heaven be?

And then one day I saw the sea.

Its cresting waves and heaving swells
pulled in to shore a thousand shells
which told the story of the deep.
I knew that day that I would keep
the majesty of surf and spray
within me 'til my dying day,
that salty air would scent my mind,
whatever wonders I might find,
and in my sleep the screeching gull
would echo through my dreaming lull.

The sky had always called to me—
and then there was the sea...