How do you like my sandy beach
When the wind is dancing in the waves?
Two thousand miles may change the land,
But no distance can change you.

Moonbeams tumble off the snow
On the whitecaps of the jagged Rockies,
Jutting out of clouds
And forested below.

But I can’t say that we are lucky
Because you don’t have sand in your mountains,
And I don’t have
Mountains in my waves.
If we superimpose the scenery, maybe
Somewhere we may meet at the sea, or
Find ourselves
Huddling on a frosty peak.

But the ocean is alive only where it stays,
Where the wind is dancing in the waves.
How do you like my sandy beach
When you’re blinded by the glare
Of the summer haze?

A song written in July 1981.

The beach referred to is one of the Great Lakes in Ontario, where I resided at the time. The mountains are the Canadian Rockies. The conflict is about two people separated by distance, one who wants to remain in the West, and one who lives for the East.

You can take a person out of the Great Lakes Basin, but you can’t take the Great Lakes out of a person who has grown up there.

This song is dedicated to my mother, who always liked it.