The Sea Sees Serenity…And Storms
A Prompt Response
Do you like the sea or the mountains, people are wont to ask. It is a question which confuses me, because I love both. So when Dr. Preeti Singh tagged me on the ‘Reciprocal’ prompt about the serenity of the sea, it was an opportunity to write about the sea, and why it was so precious to me.
In Mumbai, Muscat and Melbourne the Sea is within calling distance. Kerala hugs the Arabian Sea, and she, the Sea, makes inroads into the land from time to time.
And I have seen the Sea in many spaces, many places, many seasons and for many reasons.
The river is within us, the sea is all about us; ‘The Dry Salvages’ , №3 of ‘Four Quartets, T S Eliot
The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound! ‘Rime of The Ancient Mariner’, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking. ‘Sea Fever’, John Masefield
The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair… ‘Dover Beach’, Mathew Arnold
The Sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
We exist because of the Seas that surround us. And why shouldn’t we? Weren’t we born, and don’t we exist in a Sea for nine months, before we are disgorged onto land?
ⓒ 2023 Suma Narayan. All Rights Reserved.
This is a response to the collaborative prompt by Monoreena Acharjee Majumdar and Dr. Preeti Singh:
Shoutout to this evocative poem by Denise Larkin, The House by the Sea:
Shoutout, too, to Hayden Moore and the molten, liquid lava of poetry he fills words with:
