Category: Beach

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.

10.28.2023 – immanence of ghosts

immanence of ghosts
foam’s oblivion whitening
under crumbling coasts

From the poem, Ultimatum, published in Vigils by Siegfried Sassoon, 1935, LONDON, WILLIAM HEINEMANN, LTD.

Something we cannot see, something we may not reach,
Something beyond clairvoyant vision of the years
Our senses, winged with spirit, wordlessly beseech.
Meanwhile rife rumourings of the earth are in our ears, —
The lonely beat of blood, the immanence of ghosts,
And foam’s oblivion whitening under crumbling coasts.

I watched the sunrise this morning.

I watched the sunrise this morning with my morning coffee in my hand and my morning reading in my lap.

I watched the sunrise this morning looking out my window over the roof of the building next door.

I watched the sunrise this morning but I never saw the sun.

The sky above the building next door was black, full dark black, then first light black, then dark gray, then gray, then silver gray, then silver then the lightest light blue as the particles in the atmosphere began to pick to the presence of the ocean about a mile away from me but miles away from the sky.

To the sky, the ocean is almost just rumourings of the earth

Those particles in the atmosphere are something we cannot see, something we may not reach.

I understand or at least, accept the physics of what is happening here.

The colors are there.

Not just in our senses … or are they?

That ocean reflects its color into the sky while the foam’s oblivion whitening under crumbling coasts.

I watched the sunrise this morning and never saw the sun.

10.19.2023 – there was light good light

there was light good light
but what I consider dawn …
darker than all that

How Dark the Beginning

All we ever talk of is light—
let there be light, there was light then,
good light—but what I consider
dawn is darker than all that.

So many hours between the day
receding and what we recognize
as morning, the sun cresting
like a wave that won’t break
over us—as if light were protective,
as if no hearts were flayed,
no bodies broken on a day
like today. In any film,
the sunrise tells us everything
will be all right. Danger wouldn’t
dare show up now, dragging
its shadow across the screen.

We talk so much of light, please
let me speak on behalf
of the good dark. Let us
talk more of how dark
the beginning of a day is.

… by Maggie Smith.

According to Wikipedia, Maggie Smith is an American poet, freelance writer, and editor who lives in Bexley, Ohio.

Wikipedia also mentions that, In January 2022, when the board of trustees of McMinn County Schools in Tennessee, in a 10-0 decision, removed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus from its curriculum for 8th grade English classes, overriding a State curriculum decision, Smith was critical of the decision. She tweeted: “We’ve lost our damn minds if we think that to keep kids safe in school, we need to ban books, not assault weapons”.

10.18.2023 – answers on the beach

answers on the beach
to any question and tide brings
new answers twice daily

I really do believe that the answer to every question you might ever have can be found in the sand at the beach.

When you understand that the tide comes in twice each day and wipes out all the old answers and provides a beach full of new answers, the wonderfullness of this arrangement of answer management becomes even more wonderful.

I am happy to take advantage of this phenomena.

I walk the beach when ever I can, looking for answers.

I walk at lunch time at work.

“Going out for answers, anybody need any?”, I yell as I walk out of the room.

They are all there, the answers, just waiting for you.

But there is one caution.

Do you remember the old movie, No Time for Sergeants with Andy Griffith?

That scene when Mr. Griffith makes all the toilets seats stand up and salute?

That scene almost killed my Dad with a heart attack he laughed so hard.

The thing was that my Dad almost had a heart attack EVERY time he watched this scene.

Maybe knowing it was coming made it even funnier?

In the movie, Mr. Griffith and his Sergeant go over ALL THE ANSWERS to the all the tests Mr. Griffith has to take and PASS, to get classified.

When asked how did on the tests, Mr. Griffith replies, “you spent so much time drumming the answers into me …we ought to have spent a little more on the questions they joint up with.“

All the answers are there on the beach.

You have to bring your own questions that those answers joint up with.

10.14.2023 – cannot tell – world is

cannot tell – world is
grown so bad wrens make prey where
eagles dare not perch

I cannot tell. The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There’s many a gentle person made a Jack.

Richard III (Act I, Scene 3, Line 71)

I saw this feller today on at Fish Haul Beach on Hilton Head Island.

I kept getting closer and closer with my iPhone out with my finger poised over the VIDEO RECORD button waiting for the bird to fly off.

I got closer and closer.

The eagle kind of stared at me.

Stared at me as if say, What Fresh Hell is This?

I was at the beach.

The eagle was at the beach.

We decided to ignore each other and worry only about the world gone bad.