At Stella Maris

I watch the ocean move languorously

past the windows of this house

perched on the edge of sand

and dune grass. I expect

the house to float as though

it were a boat and the moving water

were carrying us away from the anchor

of the everyday.

In this place, where sea and sky meet,

a gull flies across the horizon.

Here, there is time enough and space

for the soothing balm of serenity, the way

the spirit expands to loosen

the weight of ordinary hours.

I breathe in this beauty:

the sea air,

the cold wind off the ocean,

this November landscape

lit by sun.