I had a pretty good session of waves today. There’s a swell that came in but mostly is making Orange County have good waves. But we got a pulse of swell too.

So it was good.

Afterward, as I was walking to my car, I spotted a fellow at a typewriter.

CHOOSE A TOPIC
RECEIVE A POEM
♥️

I said to him as I walked by “love that.”

He said “thanks.”And I walked to my car. I changed. Put away my handplanes. Put away my swim fins. Washed my feet of sand. Removed my wetsuit. Changed out of my swimsuit into shorts and a t-shirt. I thought about whether I wanted to buy a poem.

I removed my car key from its waterproof case. I did the same with my phone.

I did want to receive a poem.

I walked back to the beach. I commissioned a poem from the poet for my sweetie.

I asked the poet what he needed from me. He asked questions. I asked questions.

And we agreed.

He typed. I scanned a graphic which loaded up the Venmo account of the poet.

I sent some money.

After a while, He was done typing.

He asked if I wanted an inscription as to who it was from. I agreed. But I didn’t want to misidentify it as me having written it. He told me he had already signed it.

He asked if I wanted it to receive the poem, spoken, or just on paper.

As I had decided the poem was a gift, and it was not a poem TO ME, I would receive it only on paper.

He handed it over. He folded his hands in the Añjali Mudrā to me. And I offered my hand to shake. We shook and I thanked him.

And I walked back to my car.

I read the poem.

It’s a good poem.

The poem is not in this post, the verses are for the recipient, not for the web.

But he managed to express my intent, and exceed it.

Funny enough, last week I was trying to add “romaine lettuce” to the shopping list I share with my partner.

My phone autocompleted “romance.”

I noticed the error immediately but it struck me funny.

Why NOT add “romance” to the shopping list?

The world needs some of that.

Relationships benefit from it.

Most do, anyway.

And today, I picked up some romance at the beach for my sweetie.

I’ll have to remember to put romance on the shopping list again.