Photo by Amanda Monahan
Editor’s Note: Michelle Myers is a Pepperdine junior and a lifelong resident of Point Dume.
Before my feet first touched this sand,
The Chumash prayed to sea and land.
They named the tides, the moon, the mist,
and lived by what the waves had kissed.
Their voices hum through cliffs and caves,
Their echoes dance along the waves.
I feel them here as night gives way,
and morning warms the edge of day.
The ocean wakes in golden hue,
Malibu calm, eternal, true.
I was tossed in deep when I was small,
and the waves became my teacher after all.
They taught me strength, they taught me grace,
to move in rhythm, not in race.
No matter what may fall or stand,
the sea still takes me by the hand.
When summer fades, the warm winds sigh,
their whispers thread through cloudless sky.
The fires burn, yet when they cease,
the poppies bloom, the hills find peace.
Malibu’s heart cannot be erased,
her soul is wild, her edges traced
with salt and sage, with bloom and dune,
forever sun, forever moon.
Greed still comes with polished schemes,
with silver tongues and profit dreams.
They buy the bluffs, they raise the rent,
till locals fade where roots were meant.
They build their glass above the bay,
while every tide takes ground away.
Their mansions gleam, but time will prove,
the sea decides what she’ll remove.
For salt will creep and metal rust,
and glass will fade to wind and dust.
She needs no fence, no man, no crown,
her beauty lifts what they tear down.
So let the surf speak loud and near,
the song the faithful always hear.
I’ll stand for her through loss and sin,
for she is where my soul begins.
Malibu’s grace will never fade,
no house or hand can make her trade.
She blooms, she breathes, she will remain,
the holy pulse within my vein.
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Contact Michelle Myers via email: michelle.myers@pepperdine.edu