Poem: Sand Dollar

Years ago at Long Beach...where waves sent by some Eastern Force...wash up upon the Edge of the West...with the mist rising
off the morning ocean...in my solitariness...I came upon a sand dollar...on the wet shore...cleansed of yesterday's footsteps...
It's perfect flower...outlined on white shell...sent me stooping in wonder...the better to receive...the work of the Great Carver...who had etched this flower in a circle...and sent it forth to multiply...and stir marvel in its beholders...Homo Sapiens...crouching on the early beach...my urge to possess this fragment of the Great Picture...pushed my hand to pick
up and pocket the circle of shell...Some ancient reminder of my tiny place on the Web of Life...with the four and the two
legged...and the winged and the legless...froze my grasping hand in mid-air....What if life lurked in this delicate round house
...that could only be sustained on this fine line...where Earth and Ocean meet...and not in my dry imprisoning pocket?...
My hand fell to my side...my body deciding before my mind...to leave it where it lay...to leave it where it belonged...free...
even if life no longer beat within its chalky walls...to join again with sand and water...in the natural process...of returning to
its source...and if the force still pulsed within its quiet white exterior...to leave it to complete its natural life cycle...without
my missionary interference...with the path its species long ago had chosen..................As I recall the sand dollar...one of the
teachers on my journey...I am also reminded...that shells on the shore are like poems...some pulse with life inside their
beautiful casings...while some lie lifeless...like pretty decorations on the shore...gifts of the head...forever waiting...for the
heart to return...and breathe life into them............................