Tagged by: poetry

The boys are almost done with their summer reading list for school. We are in the final stretch of the 20 required books and CaseyJ (aka Jelly) was reading a book of poetry by A.A. Milne and I had heard him giggle at a few of them. So when he handed me the book when he was done I flipped through it and read a short poem about a bear, noting the bear really looked like Winnie the Pooh…. Later that night I slapped myself in the forehead, duh, Milne later wrote “The Adventures of Christopher Robin” and Winnie the Pooh. Hence the total resemblance. On to the post title for today, I also found the poem “The Island” in A.A. Milne’s “When We Were Younger” and it fits me like a glove. I am beach girl at heart and I’ve often said I’d like to have my own island (as long as it high speed internet of course). If you’ve ever seen “Nim’s Island” that’s my dream living place (who wouldn’t want to live on an island with Gerard Butler?)… but I’m not opposed to living near beautiful snow topped mountains either. Enjoy –

Nim's Island Tree House

The Island, by A.A. Milne

If I had a ship,
I’d sail my ship
I’d sail my ship
Through Eastern seas;
Down to a beach where the slow waves thunder –
The green curls over and the white falls under –
Boom! Boom! Boom!
On the sun-bright sand.
Then I’d leave my ship and I’d land,
And climb the steep white sand,
And climb to the trees
The six dark trees,
The coco-nut trees on the cliff’s green crown –
Hands and knees
To the coco-nut trees,
Face to the cliff as the stones patter down,
Up, up, up, staggering, stumbling,
Round the corner where the rock is crumbling,
Round this shoulder,
Over this boulder,
Up to the top where the six trees stand….

And there I would rest, and lie,
My chin in my hands, and gaze
At the dazzle of the sand below,
And the green waves curling slow
And the grey-blue distant haze
Where the sea goes up to the sky….

And I’d say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea:
“There’s nobody else in the world, and the world was made for me.”