Between Sand and Sea

“Between Sand and Sea” is a patchwork of small mismatched pieces (memories) of actual daily journal entries masked in metaphors and poetry as Douglas finds his own way to recover from the harshness of a love lost along his life’s journey. To a greater sense, it serves as his personal forum, his therapy, as he reopens old wounds and takes a second look at a past love affair only to discover post mortem what love really means to him. This book is filled with his inner most intimacy, his cryptic pain and his desperate need to hold on to what he earned and lost some time ago. As well, it serves as his strength as he heals those past wounds only to discover a new love and how wonderful the feeling in finding a new beginning. Much a metaphor to life, Douglas learns how to maneuver through the harshness of life as he finds himself always somewhere between the sand and sea.

This book serves as a sequel to “Sunflowers: A Collection of Poems.” “Between Sand and Sea” largely picks up to the woven words where Douglas’ left off in his first book. Here, he finds and adds missing poems. Here, he finds himself logging over memories, jumping back and forth, from a past relationship to his most recent, ultimately discovering his past insecurities still rest against the darkness of his shadows, as equally, his personal evolution, growth and maturity in creating and maintaining a new relationship. He finds himself reflecting in hot steamy passionate moments, restlessness, jealousness; impatience and eventually finding that place where sacrifice ultimately leading to completeness. 

Each poem takes the reader into the day after, not knowing if the next poem is full of life, positivity or sadness resting on the pain of melancholy. Much fashioned after life, we all hope the next page is filled with happiness and inspiration. 

Douglas Rue is a quintessential native Floridian. He was educated at both St. Augustine’s’ College and DePaul University. With his need and desire to advance his career, a good part of his early adulthood was spent relocating from the East to West Coast and ultimately finding his way back home to the Florida Gulf Coast. He has a background in Computer Engineering with degrees in Computer Science, Telecommunications and Business. Douglas has held many key technical positions in Enterprise Networking supporting multi-national organizations in their design and support of global networks from both a Telephony and Data Communications perspective. As an Adjunct Professor, he has also lectured Network Engineering courses at colleges both in Los Angeles and Atlanta. He taught his first college courses (Data Communications) in Southern California while still in his early twenties.

Writing, as a hobby, seems to be just the right opportunity as he approaches his next chapters in life. As he puts it, “writing seems to heal wounds that for long I denied their existence.” His first two books of poetry, "Sunflowers: A Collection of Poems " and "Between Sand and Sea" are his way of exercising emotions he thought he had neatly locked away. As a result of his writings, through his use of metaphors, he has discovered the importance of expressing his acceptance of love and his continued growth in learning how to give love in return unconditionally.