This poem is a combo. First, Kay Morgan gave me the title "Blue Minded" which comes from a theory (a fact in my experience) that going for a walk on the beach will cure most cases of low spirits. Wendy Reidel asked me to write a poem using the words "saline drip", "ocean" and "tears." So I put them together and made a poem. Thank you ladies. The poem will be up soon at Tupelo, of course.

Bue Minded

When I’m an old woman tethered

to the silvery length of the saline drip, I’ll imagine

my every ocean. Thank them, for the days

I carried sadness to the sand, the long horizon, and

left it behind. Last year’s blue afternoons spent

where sharp-elbowed pelicans lifted up over the Gordon River.

The picture above is of Eastern Point Beach—the beach close to our house in Groton, CT when I was a kid. The rest of the poem visits a handful of my favorite beaches both Atlantic and Pacific. If the poem starts on a dreary note, remember I did have to find a way to get saline drip in there somewhere, and I decided I'd rather do it to myself than somebody else. Actually, the poem was fun to write. All those glimpses of water.

I'm feeling nostalgic this week, I guess. Tomorrow's piece—requested by Kathy DiMaggio—is has to recall the trip we all took when we were all much younger and raring to go. It's reminding me how fortunate I have been to travel so much of this beautiful country.