I have been sitting here for like ten minutes trying to comment on this piece. I read it last night and was too tired to comment as well as I feel this piece deserves, but even wide awake and on my second cup of coffee I am unable to comment... so here's a try.

Portraits of lovers on the shoreline
are determined to survive,
though sailors retire and mermaids
depress into underwater caves,
writing memoirs of all the humans
they could not learn to love.

^This is a wonderful introduction and I love the descriptions. The nature theme felt unusual coming from you, but it was beautiful none the less.

Life hurts...
how many stories are born in nature,
encounters we have failed to witness?

^ I like that this stanza is phrased as a question and actually got me thinking. Nice job with that.

Life renews...
stems emerge from spring's snow
of precious pink, while sandy shoulders
awake and circle like pelicans.

^ This is beautiful and a nice (much needed) contrast to the previous stanza. I like how you showed the light and the dark in such an interesting way.

Everything is just beginning,
and yes, although it is an adage
roaring inside seashells and
bouncing off eroded rock,
life will not always hurry

^ I am unsure what to say about this stanza aside from the single word, "beautiful".

so please,
stop chasing the tides with
gushing tears and labored breaths.

^ this stanza really created your voice as far as this piece is concerned. because now it feels more personal and directed than the narrative feel at first.

You have time with this earth.
She is not a pirate, not a hunter,
not an unrequited love.

^ the perspective this stanza shows is not only completely unique and refreshing but also sweet and delicate in a way. It says so much more than I expected at first.

So wherever you are now,
whether icefishing or surfing or
mountain climbing or planting marigolds,

^ i feel like this and the next stanza were part of the same at one point or another, but I am glad that you separated them because it makes each of them more powerful.

use your lungs, and sigh,
sigh into the sunshine.

^ I like the power you give this stanza by separating it from the previous one but I also love the imagery.

It is not too late in the season
to start living...

^ excellent conclusion.

Another beautifully penned piece. I only would have guessed it was for the prompt game because it is different than your usual style, but that is not to say it is a bad thing at all. It was still beautiful and some of your best work (so far/ that I have found).

Oh my goodness wow.
This was so much fun to read and very enjoyable.
I liked the entire concept of it and the way you put it together.
The way you started it is such a powerful stanza and pulls the reader in right away, that was really creative and beautiful in the metaphor which you pieced together. I really liked "writing memoirs of all the humans they could not learn to love."
To me it is a call to nature and how humans harm this planet and how can the beauty and mysterious of nature truly love humans when we have done so much damage to this planet.
How you shift to the hurting of life and the beginning of renewal is another beautiful imagery of words. I love how you show us that everything is just beginning and with the seasons changed we as people have a chance to change as well and breathe nature into ourselves becoming one with it.
or that's how I took it. Loved it anyhow.