Signs on the Sand

signs on the sand –

entrusting the wave

with the whole story

— Clara Toma, from the volume “Signs on the Sand”

A story by the sea, most likely one of love.

The wave took the whole story with it (it left no trace), but it does not disappear: it is carried on by the sea's roar.

Both people and waves are ever-changing, yet the sea remains—always there, waiting in the same place, holding a treasure of memories gathered over millennia.

Beyond the simple image of a drawing erased by a wave lies the fragility of love, but also the trust that the sea will keep the secret; each person will recognize only their own story. This is one of the sea’s eternal fascinations.

That word, “entrusting,” gives the poem weight—it suggests a vow made before a trustworthy, powerful, and mysterious witness.

(Comment by Ramona Bădescu)

Indeed, the entire charm of the text lies in the word “entrusting.”

If you stop to think about it, the author has already understood and accepted that everything that happened to her has no chance of being preserved, of lasting, of being known, recognized, or remembered. That the wave will quickly erase everything. And no one will know anything anymore. The story will merge with all the others the waves have stolen and tangled.

And so she had the courage to feel that her story, too, is woven into the all-knowing wave. That the wave has absorbed it. That it will always tell it to those ears that know how to listen with humility.

(Comment by Corneliu Traian Atanasiu)