It's interesting, though, how certain themes present themselves. The three you chose - and the Shakespeare as well - are about ephemerality. They put the reader apart from the beach, from the ocean, and make it something different from normal experience. The last one (Mulla Mulla Beach) goes a little further by separating the author from the people he observes. There's an "otherness" to it. You know what would be interesting to me? A comparison with poems about the desert. I suspect you will find many similar themes, but also stark contrasts. There's something forgiving about a beach that a desert will never be. And while I recognize that there aren't many deserts within driving distance of Delaware, a sojourn might be interesting to you.
Arcosanti's a trip. I stayed overnight there. It's crazy cheap. If the Mos Eisley Spaceport were in a post-apocalyptic future written by Douglas Coupland, it'd be Arcosanti. This book is legit outsider art. Paolo Solari is probably insane, but since he's an insane architect rather than an insane cult leader he gets a bye. It's kinda funny - one of the few things he ever did for money was design a foundry building. It was there he fell in love with slip-cast concrete. So now everything is slip-cast concrete. he's even got a foundry. And hey - $300 a week to run off and join the Lost Boys while eating hippie chow. Just pick your season carefully.
Cuttlefish bones are kind of hard to make into combs, bro. Just sayin'. That's some nice brittle chambered calcium carbonate, and you can make molds from it, but probably not combs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlebone has some cross-sections.
I'm aware. It's a quote; it's not my own original phrase, which is
why...it's in quotes. In fact, my poem that uses the quote begins; .
Edit: And if you're about to tell me that they do have a "bone," yes, I'm aware. Please just don't.
Here, the italics indicate that it's a quote. We format slightly different in poetry sometimes. I guess quotation marks may be something your discipline doesn't cover, but I assure you, the Purdue OWL does. Thanks for the attempt though. Mermaids don't use combs.
They comb their hair with cuttlefish bones
except that everyone knows how cuttlefish
are cartilaginous
I didn't notice. Whoops. Although they're not cartilaginous either except for their braincase.
Yup, got it, please refer to edit. I realize that you have an occasionally insufferable need to be right, and I've tried to be pretty nice and civil to you, but you're getting on my last nerve and if I have to mute you by god I will fucking happily do so. I swear when the cuttlefish poem goes live I am going to post it here under the title "Poem Wherein Ref Claims Cuttlefish Are Cartilaginous But Don't Worry Guys She's Lying". Clearly there is some difficulty with understanding artistic language and poetic license here; clearly we must confine ourselves to the realm of facts, and clearly if we write anything that departs from absolute, black-and-white fact it will be misinterpreted and oh, yes, corrected. By those who are our betters, of course. Because who else could they be?
Sometimes it's nice to leave a trail of art behind us, revising as new information either becomes available or is found out by the artist: Mass of Incandescent gas? Or miasma of incandescent plasma? But to the larger point I think it's a fool that points out the factual fallibility of a poem. Often language and terminology are used evocatively, such is my guess with the "cuttlefish."