Some of these beach haiku were written by random trips to beach.
Most of these are part of a series based on afternoons spent at the beach on Hilton Head Island with my pad out ( a real paper note pad), hoping for words with my iPhone camera handy to add illustration to my thoughts.
I wanted to see if I would be ‘inspired’ by what I saw, by what I heard, by what I smelled, by what I tasted, what I felt emotionally and what I felt tactilely.
Some turned out okay.
Some were too forced.
Some were just bad.
Some did involve some or all of those feelings.
As far as it goes, I guess I was inspired by by what I saw, by what I heard, by what I smelled, by what I tasted, what I felt emotionally and what I felt tactilely.
Please aware that most of these haiku were NOT WRITTEN on the date in the title – for an explanation of this please see The Series link in the navigation table.
without wondering
think about the sunrise and
what sunrise would bring
Adapted from the line, “He thought that he would lie down and think about nothing. Sometimes he could do this. Sometimes he could think about the stars without wondering about them and the ocean without problems and the sunrise without what it would bring.”
From the book, Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway, (Charles Scribner Sons: New York, 1970 – published posthumously).
shake out every sail
round the world and home again
that’s the sailor’s way
Head the ship for England!
Shake out every sail!
Blithe leap the billows,
Merry sings the gale.
Captain, work the reck’ning;
How many knots a day? —
Round the world and home again,
That’s the sailor’s way!
From Homeward Bound by William Allingham as published in The vista of English verse by Henry Spackman Pancoast, (H. Holt and company: New York, 1911).
We happened to be on the beach on Hilton Head during the Hilton Head Multi Hull 50th Anniversary Beach Regatta.
My grandson Jaxon, who knows no fear, ran into the waves and asked for a ride.
One of the sailors boomed and I mean BOOMED out, ‘You Bet!’
Picked him up and plopped on the boat.
Today’s haiku is adapted from the poem, Homeward Bound, and the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
According to the book, I want it Now, by Julie Dawn Cole, who played Veruca Salt in the movie, it was screen writer, David Seltzer, who came up with the “… clever and charming quotations, often borrowed from Classic Literature, that he wove into Gene’s dialogue. His fluency in this works translated into the final elegance of the final script. S[potting the origins of these quotes has fascinated many Wonka fans.“
According to Wikipedia, He [David Seltzer] was uncredited for his contributions to the screenplay of the 1971 musical film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The author of the original book, Roald Dahl, is credited as the sole screenwriter; however, it has been revealed that Seltzer rewrote 30 percent of Dahl’s script, adding such elements as the “Slugworth subplot”, music other than the original Oompa Loompa compositions (including Pure Imagination and The Candy Man), and the ending dialogue for the film.”
As a shout out to the movie, Mr. Seltzer and those guys on the boat, so shines a good deed in a weary world.
And lest we forget, Mr. Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice. Where the original line, spoken by Portia, is:
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
If you could have seen the smile on Jaxon’s face … you would know just what Big Bill and Mr. Seltzer were going for.
La mer est tout, son
souffle est pur et sain que
mouvement et amour
Based on the passage: La mer est tout ! Elle couvre les sept dixièmes du globe terrestre. Son souffle est pur et sain. C’est l’immense désert où l’homme n’est jamais seul, car il sent frémir la vie à ses côtés. La mer n’est que le véhicule d’une surnaturelle et prodigieuse existence ; elle n’est que mouvement et amour ; c’est l’infini vivant, comme l’a dit un de vos poètes. Et en effet, monsieur le professeur, la nature s’y manifeste par ses trois règnes, minéral, végétal, animal.”
From Vingt mille lieues sous les mers : Tour du monde sous‑marin by Jules Verne( Paris : Éditions J. Hetzel & Cie, 1870).
Or … The sea is everything!
It covers seven-tenths of the earth’s surface. Its breath is pure and healthy.
It is the vast desert where man is never alone, for he feels life stirring on all sides.
The sea is only the vehicle for a supernatural and prodigious existence;
it is nothing but movement and love;
it is living infinity, as one of your poets said.
And indeed, Professor, nature manifests itself there in all three of its kingdoms: mineral, vegetable, and animal.”
From Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A Tour of the Underwater World by Jules Verne (Paris: J. Hetzel & Co., 1870).
What?
Another excuse to show off that this is where I take my lunch time?
La mer est tout!
The sea is everything!
Elle n’est que mouvement et amour!
It is nothing but movement and love!
And … another excuse to show off that this is where I take my lunch time.
shrimping boats are late today
swift mischief or stubborn sea
lost beneath the tide
The shrimping boats are late today;
The dusk has caught them cold.
Swift darkness gathers up the sun,
And all the beckoning gold
That guides them safely into port
Is lost beneath the tide.
Now the lean moon swings overhead,
And Venus, salty-eyed.
They will be late an hour or more,
The fishermen, blaming dark’s
Swift mischief or the stubborn sea,
But as their lanterns’ sparks
Ride shoreward at the foam’s white rim,
Until they reach the pier
I cannot say if their catch is shrimp,
Or fireflies burning clear.
Nocturne: Georgia Coast by Daniel Whitehead Hicky as published in Poems of Daniel Whitehead Hicky by Daniel Whitehead Hicky (Atlanta : Cherokee Pub. Co.: Atlanta, 1975).
sea-born Venus, when
rose from out her cradle shell
wind out-blows, ’tis blue
That, when I think thereon, my spirit clings
And plays about its fancy, till the stings
Of human neighbourhood envenom all.
Unto what awful power shall I call?
To what high fane? — Ah! see her hovering feet,
More bluely vein’d, more soft, more whitely sweet
Than those of sea-born Venus, when she rose
From out her cradle shell. The wind out-blows
Her scarf into a fluttering pavilion;
’Tis blue, and over-spangled with a million
Of little eyes, as though thou wert to shed,
Over the darkest, lushest blue-bell bed,
Except from Endymion: a poetic romance by John Keats, John, 1795-1821 (Taylor and Hessey, 93, Fleet Street: London, 1918).
I cannot drive to work without looking to my left and see Venus bright in the pre dawn sky and not relax.
Since the moment of Creation, Venus has been there as the morning or evening Star.
No one in history, whether they made the history books or not, has not, at some point in their lives, seen Venus in the sky.
Maybe they didn’t know it was Venus but there it was.
My Dad had a way of pointing out Venus whenever he saw it.
Or if we pointed out that bright star, he would correct us and say, “That’s Venus … It’s a planet”.
I do the same thing with my kids and now, my many grand kids.
And when I do, I think of my Dad and I think of the how long people Dads and Grandfathers have been doing this.
A quick look at history shows that not only has Venus been around a long time, the name Venus for Venus goes back a ways in recorded history.
The Greeks had two names for Venus:
Phosphoros (Φωσφόρος, “Light-Bringer”) when seen as the Morning Star.
Hesperos (Ἓσπερος, “Evening”) when seen as the Evening Star.
Eventually, Greek astronomers (like Pythagoras) realized they were the same object.
Later Greek writers used the name Aphrodite for the planet in line with mythology.
The Babylonians called Venus Ishtar, their goddess of love and war—very similar to Aphrodite/Venus.
Venus was extremely important in Babylonian astronomy and astrology.
For Egyptians, Venus was associated with goddess Isis and also sometimes Hathor.
Egyptians noted its dual role in the sky and had separate names for its morning/evening appearances.
In Chinese cosmology, Venus is called “Taibai” (太白), meaning the “Great White” star, it is associated with metal in the Five Elements (Wuxing).
Hard to see in the photo I snapped as I drove over the Cross Island Bridge this morning, but there was Venus.
As C. S. Forester writes in Hornblower and the Hotspur, ” Over there was Venus, shining out in the evening sky. This sea air was stimulating, refreshing, delightful. Surely this was a better world than his drained nervous condition allowed him to believe.”
I see Venus.
I think of my Dad.
I think of my kids and grandkids.
And I think, surely this is a better world than my drained nervous condition allows me to believe.
No Haiku For You 