Pieces of the Sea

In response to a special request by Ms. Blueistheteacher, here are the souvenirs that we brought home from Tom's in St. Augustine, Florida.

All of these stray pieces remind me of a wonderful poem by Pablo Neruda called

Of Solitude And The Sand

On blue shores of silence

among the things the sea throws up,

let us hunt for the most petrified,

violet claws of crabs,

little skulls of dead fish,

smooth syllables of wood,

small countries of mother-of-pearl;

let us look for what the sea undid

insistently, carelessly,

what it broke up and abandoned,

and left behind for us...

Let us look for secret things

somewhere in the world,

on the blue shores of silence

or where the storm has passed

rampaging like a train.

There the faint signs are left,

coins of time and water,

debris, celestial ash

and the ireplaceable rapture

of sharing in the labor

of solitude and sand.