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From: bll@mhuxt.UUCP (Barbara Levin)
Newsgroups: net.poems
Subject: Feelings of Home
Message-ID: <967@mhuxt.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jun-86 14:43:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxt.967
Posted: Tue Jun 24 14:43:28 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Jun-86 07:46:27 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
Lines: 61


I'm a native Floridian.  Though transplanted here in
New Jersey for lo these 12 years, I still get homesick
now and then...


		FEELINGS OF HOME

		     by
		Barbara Levin


I feel the warm sand,fine and soft,
beneath my feet.
I feel the ocean breezes
and the palpable waves of heat
on my skin.
The sun is an incandecent white blaze.
It makes sparks dance gaily
atop chuckling ripples.
The gulls circle gracefully above,
laughing
at us poor gravity-grappled creatures.
They skim the waves daringly,
rummaging
for tiny fish
or the scraps of bait we toss.
I hear the slap,
slap,
slap
of the water against the bottom of the boat
where it rests moored.
I see darting little shallows fish,
like flashing silver needles busily embriodering,
through water so clear
it's like looking through bottle glass.
I hear the laughing call of my brother,
egging me into a game of chase on the dunes.
I feel the sharp sting of dry sea oats
whipping across my ankles and calves
as I relent
and run after him
up and down
the shifting slopes.

Though miles now separate me
from these things I love,
I have but to close my eyes
to conjure up these...

...feelings of home.


This poem was written about memories I have of playing
games of high adventure with my brother amidst the dunes
of Bird Island. An uninhabited islet which lay in Nassau
Sound, just north of Jacksonville, Fla.
Only those few who could miraculously navigate
the oyster reefs could enjoy this untouched paradise.
I'm so very glad my memories of Bird Island are still here,
because the island is gone now.