Love's Philosophy and Boucher

Shepherd and Shepherdess Reposing, 1761, Francois Boucher

The fountains mingle with the river

   And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of heaven mix for ever

   With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

   All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

   Why not I with thine?—

Charms of Life Champetre, Boucher

See the mountains kiss high heaven

   And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

   If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

   And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

   If thou kiss not me?

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Sea Fever

Tall Ship in Rough Seas, Oil on Hardboard, 2008, Robert Kimball

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 grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking,

Photograph, Hawaii, Coleen Wilcox Art, Coleen Wilcox

I must go down to the seas again, 

for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, 

and the sea-gulls crying.

Photography, Shawn Heinrichs/Barcroft Media

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream 

when the long trick’s over.

Ocean Dreams, Giclee on Canvas, Jim Warren

~ John Masefield

We All Come From the Sea

St. Augustine, Florida

"We all come from the sea. But we are not all of the sea. Those of us who are, we children of the tides, must return to it again and again, until the day we don't come back, leaving behind only that which was touched along the way."

Caladesi Island, Florida with dad

I return to the sea again and again and again because she is beauty, she is clarity, she is humbling, she is my center.... she is home.... Jen (aka A Girl Named Fred)

St. Augustine, Florida