Poetry Break: Seashells by the Sea Shore

  Posted on March 29, 2022 By

 51 Comments

SEASHELLS BY THE SEASHORE

 

I was just a little girl when my toes sunk into the sand

Of the balmy, pretty beach deep in the Southland

I fell in love with the ocean blue, and the big open sky

The billowy clouds and thunderstorms that often blew on by

But it was all the seashells that really captured my heart

Scattered over the sand and beach, covering every part

Tumbling in the waves and buried deep in the sea

Ripe for the plucking, those seashells really called out to me

Seashells dumping onto shore with every incoming tide

Shells clinking and clacking in the waves, rolling on a surf ride

More seashells on one beach than I could ever want or hold

I was just a child then so they seemed to me like gold

Shapes of pure perfection, colors like the sand

Twisty shells, clam shells, oyster shells that all fit perfectly in my hand

When I held them to my ear I could hear the ocean’s call

Even long after I got home and winter did befall

As the snow and ice set in, I stare out the window and dream

Of that long ago visit to Florida, where the ocean waters gleam

Where seashells of every shape and size rest upon the shore

Where the ocean horizons and palm trees stretch on forever more

“I’ll return and visit someday,” I always said in my heart

“No matter how many years go by, we won’t forever be apart.”

And now, so many years later, I’m returning to Florida land

I’m returning to play in the waves, and search for shells in the sand

I’m sure I’ll have a wonderful time, really, how could I not?

In a place where seashells are everywhere, like a big treasure pot?

I’ll see you soon, Florida beach, get ready for when I arrive

Because I can’t wait for the sun and shells, to feel so much more alive

M.B. Henry

Digital Backup 202

As you might have guessed from this poem and post, I am headed off for a badly needed (and quite lengthy!) vacation to Florida next week to see my grandma and some other extended family. So the blog will be pretty quiet for awhile. I look forward to resuming posting and visiting all your amazing blogs when I return after Easter! You all be good until then! 🙂 

If you want to follow along on my Florida and road trip adventures – follow me on Instagram and Twitter, handle @mbhenry1985

Photos by M.B. Henry – for more photography from all over the world, click here! 

Looking for some spring reading? If you like WWII Historical Fiction and have an interest in D-Day, you might enjoy my debut novel which drops in a little over a month. Click here for more information! 

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 Category: History

51 Comments on “Poetry Break: Seashells by the Sea Shore”

  3. Love the verse MB my favourite lines
    “More seashells on one beach than I could ever want or hold
    I was just a child then so they seemed to me like gold”

    Have a great family holiday and congats on book 🙂

    Reply

    • So glad you enjoyed the poem – I can’t wait to see all those seashells again! 🙂 They might still seem like a pot of gold to this winter-weary adult 🙂

      Reply

  4. What a beautiful, magical poem. It painted a very clear picture of those precious seashells. Have a wonderful time in Florida. You deserve the break!

    Reply

  5. Appealing, evocative, nostalgic poem, MB! Enjoy your trip to Florida!

    (Your poem brought to mind Rosamunde Pilcher’s fabulous novel “The Shell Seekers.”)

    Reply

    • Thanks so much I’m very glad you enjoyed it! And I’m sure I will have a lovely time

      Reply

  7. Have a great time on your holiday M.B. I’ll be thinking of you in that warm climate as we descend into an early winter !!! I am looking forward to getting you book to, something to read over the coming winter!!

    Reply

    • I hope the biggest feeling I feel is relaxation 🙂 It will be hard not to though. Hope you are well!

      Reply

  10. I love shells as much as you do, but few land on our Galveston beaches. I’ve never been to Florida, but I hear the shelling there is great, as it can be down south at Padre Island. I hope you find all the treasure you can hold — and more! Have fun!

    Reply

    • Wish you had more in Galveston, but I promise you will find your fill if you ever visit Florida! 🙂 I can’t wait to visit those beaches again plus it will be so nice to see my grandma and family! 🙂

      Reply

  11. Have a wonderful trip! I just got back from Florida where it was warm and sunny and wonderful. Here it is rainy and still kind of cold. Sigh. Summer is coming!

    Reply

    • I can only hope the weather here will be a little more cooperative when I get back! 🙂

      Reply

  17. Have a wonderful vacation with family, sea shells on the beach, renew, refresh, we will be waiting for you…safe travels.
    P.S. Avoid the governor and his cohorts.

    Reply

  18. Your poem made me feel like I was on the beach, too, it was so evocative.

    I hope it was a wonderful vacation, and I hope you found lots of beautiful seashells.

    Reply

    • 🙂 I’m so very glad you enjoyed it. I definitely enjoyed my vacation – it was sorely needed! And yes – I did find lots of very pretty seashells.

      Reply

  19. The seashells are so much fun to collect. The ocean has that draw on us like nothing else! Maybe it is the moons pull! Hope your time in Florida was memorable!

    Reply

    • It was lovely and I found lots of pretty sea shells, and even some shark teeth! 🙂

      Reply

    • Thank you for reading – I’m very glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply

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Quotes of the Week

“I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they cannot be so universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every family – a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related – a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but what invading foreman could never do, the silent artillery of time has done – the leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and be no more. They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason.”
-Abraham Lincoln

M.B. HENRY

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