Patty Merski’s MOTHER BEACH (the joy of finding beach glass), is a slim and semi-poetical volume containing contemplations emerging in four- and five-line rhyming stanzas as the author ambles along the shores of Lake Erie. Her thoughts drift between observations of different types of shells–“I recall stringing these delicate shells/strands fit for a Queen” to existential philosophical curiosity about the lakeshore’s place in the universe. It is Merski’s premise that her “old friend” Mother Beach is the source of all bounty on the shore and has the power to bestow or conceal gifts, particularly beach glass (“my gaze surrounds her shores, and soon within my reach/a splendid piece of smooth blue glass, a gift from mother beach!”).
Chanda Patel’s lovely pen and ink watercolor washes of turquoise water, beach pebbles, rocks, shells and multi-colored glass fragments illustrate each page of Merski’s meandering journeys and act as a backdrop that enhances the underlying theme. The illustrations bring to mind the soporific joy of languid days spent relaxing on the sand, listening to the waves hissing over rocks and pebbles as the tide recedes. There are glimpses of this imagery contained inside the book as well.
Readers with a poetic and spiritual soul will see similar all-too-fleeting glimpses among the rhymes. (“I wonder how she fashions them/mother beach never tells,/etched in rocky waters/tumbled in her swells…”) The rest of the verses are mainly dreamy musings. As a privately printed gift for close friends and relatives, MOTHER BEACH would make a very welcome choice. The design and layout are imaginative, while the presentation has a delightful touch in the form of a pebble–sized piece of beach glass glued to the cover.
Written by Patty Merski and beautifully illustrated by Chanda Patel, MOTHER BEACH (the joy of finding beach glass) features reflections on the whimsicality of a Great Lake shore and its spiritual role in giving up beach glass treasures.
~Martin Rushmere for IndieReader