October 6, 2014

This morning I walked out to our patio and that same morning gift  had arrived. I moved in the direction of the ocean and paused to take in that calming, memorable smell of October ocean.

October 16, 2012

I wrote the poem below in early October, 2011. Yesterday, I opened my upstairs door that faces the ocean. That same morning gift greeted me for the first time this fall. To preserve that moment I share the poem again.

Oh to be able

To gather for you

The fresh smell of ocean

That greets me

As I walk to the garden this morning.

It o’rtakes any others

That I might sense:

The remnant of a passing diesel truck,

The faint odor of skunk

Or bacon cooking.

Today, I have ocean—

Honest and pure,

Unlike the advertised scent

On boxes of dryer sheets.

My mind holds

The image of the waves

As I walked along the cliffs

Last evening.

And the fragrance of ocean

Is my morning gift. 

Susan Martin