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ONE SEA IS NOT LIKE ANY OTHER

Written by: Rod McKuen
www.rodmckuen.com
(check out his site and buy his poetry books...they are extraordinary)

I am always being pulled by love
not only bed and bodies
but a city here,
a red sail there.

A beach town
or some seaport city
always opens up her arms
in welcome to me.

I am now
the product of those
many oceans
the sea is all I know
for sure
but I know it well.

If the sea
did not make me
by hand
it rubbed me, rolled me
out of darkness
into light.

For I have seen
my past and future
on the white caps
dancing out beyond
a thousand shorelines.

I have recognized
my face
swimming in the shallows,
my body blundering
through the gray-white foam.

My life has sailed
so far out past the tide
it's now beyond
my own far-reaching reach.

The sea makes something
out of nothing every day,
by the running in
and running back
of the tide alone.

And with the aid
of but a little sand
it polishes and hones
the bottom of the world
twice daily.

One ocean for me
is not like any other
except to say
that each has given comfort
when I need it,
love when there was none
forthcoming
from another quarter,
peace if I stayed long enough
to wait for it or seek it out

 
C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S

When I was but a youngster,
Christmas meant one thing
That I'd be getting lots of toys that day.
I learned a whole lot diff'rent
When Mother sat me down
And taught me to spell Christmas this way:

C is for the Christ Child born upon this day
H for herald angels in the night
R means our Redeemer
I means Israel
S is for the star that shone so bright
T is for three wise men, they who traveled far
M is for the manger where He lay
A is for all He stands for
S means shepherds came

And that's why there's a Christmas Day