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.
sun shone salt glittered like tinsel the wind tousled the sea prettily
Adapted from:
Prepared for a slice of heroic adventure, they found themselves in the middle of a floating vicarage garden fete .
The sun shone.
The salt in the air glittered like tinsel In the enclosed water of the Solent, the stiffish southerly wind did no more than prettily tousle the sea.
Though I had made an important fuss of laying compass courses on the chart and calculating tidal streams, there was no navigation, since everyone could see exactly where everywhere was.
There was no solitude, either.
There was hardly any room at all in which to move.
From the book Coasting by Jonathan Raban
Jonathan Raban, the British travel writer, critic and novelist known for his candid accounts of travelling the world in books such as Passage to Juneau and Coasting, has died aged 80, his agent has confirmed.
and here you may find me on almost any lunchtime walk along the shore
Every day the sea blue gray green lavender pulls away leaving the harbor’s dark-cobbled undercoat
slick and rutted and worm-riddled, the gulls walk there among old whalebones, the white spines of fish blink from the strandy stew as the hours tick over; and then
far out the faint, sheer line turns, rustling over the slack, the outer bars, over the green-furled flats, over the clam beds, slippery logs,
barnacle-studded stones, dragging the shining sheets forward, deepening, pushing, wreathing together wave and seaweed, their piled curvatures
spilling over themselves, lapping blue gray green lavender, never resting, not ever but fashioning shore, continent, everything.
And here you may find me on almost any morning walking along the shore so light-footed so casual.
Tides by Mary Oliver
If I leave my the building where I work and turn left and walk up the street, cross at the corner and walk up a path through a parking lot, it takes me about 2 minutes to get to this view.
Oddly enough this was not mentioned as a perk of the job when I interviewed here.
Favored by good fortune and smart enough to not question it but just enjoy it.
lunch time beach walking servers clicks webpages emails somewhat disappear
Out the door of my office, down the street and cross at the corner.
Take the fenced in path through the parking lot.
Bang – Zoom, I am on the beach.
I am walking across the sand wearing khakis and a button down to be sure but still …
Jim Harrison once wrote along that lines that it would take a half a day but he could get on plane, land in northern upper lower Michigan, get in his car and be back at his home in Leelanau.
Really, he said, it was the only way he could handle being in Los Angeles.
Back at my desk, the servers, clicks, webpages and emails are waiting for me.
you cannot even remember the questions that weigh so in your mind
From Terns by Mary Oliver.
Sea Gull on Hilton Head Island
Don’t think just now of the trudging forward of thought, But of the wing-drive of unquestioning affirmation. It’s summer, you never saw such a blue sky, And here they are, those white birds with quick wings, Sweeping over the waves, chattering and plunging, Their thin beaks snapping, their hard eyes Happy as little nails The years to come – this is a promise- Will grant you ample time To try the difficult steps in the empire of thought Where you seek for the shining proofs you think you must have. But nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding, Than this deepest affinity between your eyes and the world. The flock thickens Over the rolling, salt brightness. Listen, Maybe such devotion, in which one holds the world In the clasp of attention, isn’t the perfect prayer, But it must be close, for the sorrow, whose name is doubt, Is thus subdued, and not through the weaponry of reason, But of pure submission. Tell me, what else Could beauty be for? And now the tide Is at its very crown, The white birds = sprinkle down, Gathering up the loose silver rising As if weightless. It isn’t instruction, or parable. It isn’t for any vanity or ambition Except for the one allowed, to stay alive. It’s only a nimble frolic Over the waves. And you find, for hours, You cannot even remember the questions That weigh so in your mind.
In a recent text message, my sister Lisa asked me to look up this poem.
It was my sister who first pointed out the work and writing of Mary Oliver to me.
She said this poem make her think of me and the beautiful ocean … in our neighborhood.
The beautiful ocean in our neighborhood.
I really like that.
I really like that a lot.
“My life,” wrote Mr. Thoreau, “is like a stroll upon the beach, as near to the ocean’s edge as I can go.“
Just a stroll upon the beach.
Just a walk along the neighborhood ocean.
As near to the ocean’s edge as I can go.
And It’s only a nimble frolic
Over the waves. And you find, for hours,
You cannot even remember the questions
That weigh so in your mind.
PostScript on Terns and Seagulls – The sight of a white bird near water leads most people to assume it’s a seagull, but in reality the term seagull is not one specific type of bird. Any of a number of different gull species are what we often refer to as seagulls, even when we are far from any sea. Seagull is a generic term for the many gulls in the Laridae family of shorebirds, according to the Michigan State University Extension. The Laridae family also includes terns, many of which are similar in appearance to gulls. Telling a gull from a tern can be difficult, although it’s easier to tell them apart when seen in flight. That’s because the terns common in this area have sharply angular tails and wings, while gulls have more rounded wings. (from the The Forest Preserve District of Will County website)
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