Seashells

I picked up shells with ruby lips
  That spoke in whispers of the sea,
Upon a time, and watched the ships,
    On white wings, sail away to sea.

The ships I saw go out that day
    Live misty—dim in memory;
But still I hear, from far away,
    The blue waves breaking ceaselessly. 

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on June 12, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“Seashells” appeared in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey (Crane Printers, 1910).