I am waiting to
get some intimations of
immortality

The view from the beach for the last day of summer or the first day of fall, 2024.

The Haiku is adapted from an excerpt of the poem, I am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his book, A Coney Island of the Mind.

I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

A renaissance of wonder.

Is there a greater illustration, perpetually and forever, of a renaissance of wonder then to watch little kids at the beach.

I am waiting to experience this like a kid again.

Youth’s dumb green fields come back again.

I am waiting for that too.

I know too much and I want to know less and just enjoy it all as a child.

Immortality!

I am waiting.

is glittering in
the first rays of the sun, which
has not yet reached us

August 10 – The air at sunrise is clear and pure, and the morning extremely cold, but beautiful.

A lofty snow peak of the mountain is glittering in the first rays of the sun, which has not yet reached us.

The long mountain wall to the east, rising two thousand feet abruptly from the plain, behind which we see the peaks, is still dark, and cuts clear against the glowing sky.

A fog, just risen from the river, lies along the base of the mountain.

A little before sunrise, the thermometer was at 35°, and at sunrise 33°.

Water froze last night, and fires are very comfortable.

The scenery becomes hourly more interesting and grand, and the view here is truly magnificent; but, indeed, it needs something to repay the long prairie journey of a thousand miles.

The sun has just shot above the wall, and makes a magical change.

The whole valley is glowing and bright, and all the mountain peaks are gleaming like silver.

Though these snow mountains are not the Alps, they have their own character of grandeur and magnificence, and will doubtless find pens and pencils to do them justice.

From the Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains – 1842 by John C. Fremont as reprinted in The American Landscape: A Critical Anthology of Prose and Poetry edited by John Conron, London, Oxford University Press 1973.

if not best spot, still …
a very good second best
sunny, sandy toes

The temperature was in the high 80’s

The WATER temperature was in the low 80’s

The lifeguards kept us close to shore because of rip tides due to Ernesto.

The sun was out.

A warm constant breeze was blowing out of the south.

We got there at low tide so there was plenty of beach.

There was sun in our faces and sand on our toes.

There was sun on our faces and sand in our toes as well.

If this wasn’t the best place in the world to be this afternoon, it was a very good second best.

BTW I stole that last line from a description of the plans for the invasion of France in World War 2.

Better known as D-Day, Winston Churchill said it may not have been the best plan, but it was a very good second best.