A journal entry: Sea-Fever (post recitation)

It's interesting, the difference between reading a poem and reciting it for others. At first I found myself dreading the whole thing, so I picked a date several weeks after the assignment of the poems so that I wouldn't ave to deal with it (for a while, at least). As it came down to just a few days away, I began to really practice. I was amazed at how the poem really came alive to me. I watched videos of it set to song, and lost myself in the rhythm of the words. Some poems, I think, are better on the page, where the sounds only truly make sense in the imagination of one's own mind. Not this poem. "Sea-Fever" is a song to be sung, a story to be shared, a lyric to be held in one's heart. I'm glad I picked it, because it has become a part of me. I can't think of it without hearing crashing waves, smelling salt air, and feeling the ghost of a wild rush in my chest. It's almost like carrying sunlight, knowing this poem. It's a good one to have memorized.