Writer Sandra Taylor Rouja calls the poetry in her latest book a lifeline to the good times.“I Sing of the Sea” or ‘Canto Do Mar’, Mrs Rouja’s second book, is available now in local bookstores.“Writing has been a way to hold on to those happy moments in life,” said Mrs Rouja. “The book includes are pieces written over a period of 30 years.“When I published my first book ‘Cottage Diary’, several years ago, it was the same type of work.“I have had people say ‘you must have a very peaceful life’. Or sometimes people are almost sarcastic saying ‘well, I would like to spend my days drinking mint tea in my garden under the trees like you do’.“I have had a very complicated life, actually. I have probably lived several lives in this one life already. My husband, Pierre, is French, and I have lived in France. I have lived in Bermuda.“There was a time in my childhood when I lived in New York for two years. If I was going to write out the story of my life it could be several different people’s lives which is probably the same for many people.”“Song of the Sea” has an aquatic theme throughout. She considers the work in the book to be contemplative prose rather than poetry.In her piece “Cathedral” she writes: How do I forget where I am best? Entering the sea with snorkel and mask I was immediately overtaken by my need of it all.The book contains several beautiful underwater photographs by the late photographer Laurence Gould and Mrs Rouja’s son Jean Pierre Rouja.In a nod to Mrs Rouja’s Portuguese heritage, the poems are written in both English and Portuguese.Mrs Rouja does not actually speak Portuguese so she turned to her friend, Penny Souza Fowkes, for help with translation.Ms Fowkes does a lot of translation work, but sought the advice of a friend in Lisbon, Portugal, Maria Cristina Lacerda, to make sure the translations were just right.“Primarily, the challenge was to maintain the quality of the writing and to get an accurate sense of what she was saying which isn’t always easy,” Ms Fowkes said.The book’s Portuguese title “Canto do Mar” is a nod to Mrs Rouja’s home in Evans Bay, Southampton that carries the same name.“My mother, Loucil De Costa Silva Taylor, named it that. She thought it meant ‘Song of the Sea’, but it was Penny who told me that it actually means, ‘I Sing of the Sea’ which was even better,” said Mrs Rouja.Mrs Rouja received a grant from the Bermuda Government Cultural Legacy Fund to publish the book. She encouraged more people to try writing, or at least something artistic or crafty.“Everyone has something they can do,” she said. “It is just a matter of finding it. I am lazy and writing comes easily to me. I think that is why I have ended up writing.“When my children were small I often wrote down the things they did and said. I have found that things you think you’ll never forget; you forget.“Then when you go back and read your old pieces, there it is. You remember that event again. When I read my older writing it is like I am 20 or 30 years younger again.”The book is currently available at the Bermuda Bookstore, Brown and Company and the Bermuda Craft Market in Dockyard and the Music Box.