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.
morning light moon light everything shines, little words slowly read story
Breakage by Mary Oliver –
I go down to the edge of the sea. How everything shines in the morning light! The cusp of the whelk, the broken cupboard of the clam, the opened, blue mussels, moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred— and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split, dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone. It’s like a schoolhouse of little words, thousands of words. First you figure out what each one means by itself, the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop full of moonlight. Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.
That’s my wish.
And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?
So says Burt Lancaster in the role of Moonlight Graham in the movie, Field of Dreams.
In book, Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella, Doc Graham says, “That’s what I wish, Ray Kinsella, whoever you are. Is there enough magic floating around out in the night for you to make it come true?”
What Ray thinks of is something Joe Jackson said to him.
This is the kind of place where anything can happen, isn’t it?”
They were thinking of Iowa.
I am thinking of the beach.
I love to sit and watch and begin, slowly, to read the whole story.
the little waves with their soft, white hands efface the footprints in the sands
Adapted from The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The tide rises, the tide falls, The twilight darkens, the curlew calls; Along the sea-sands damp and brown The traveller hastens toward the town, And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls, But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls; The little waves, with their soft, white hands, Efface the footprints in the sands, And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls; The day returns, but nevermore Returns the traveller to the shore, And the tide rises, the tide falls.
sky white cumulus like friendly piles of ice cream high September sky
Adapted from then line: “He looked at the sky and saw the white cumulus built like friendly piles of ice cream and high above were the thin feathers of the cirrus against the high September sky.” in the novel, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952.
hopelessness is the enemy of justice – is a constant struggle
I was born on July 17, 1960.
One month later, unknown to me and unrelated to this event, 11 kids went wading in the Atlantic Ocean at the public beach on Tybee Island on the east coast near Savannah, Georgia.
All 11 kids were arrested.
They were officially charged with Public Disrobing.
The real reason is that the public beaches in Georgia in 1960 were segregated.
And these 11 kids were not ‘allowed’ to use the public beach because they were not white.
1960.
Stars of the show, from left, Edna Jackson, Evalena Hoskins, and Mary Gray, who participated as high-school students in the historic 1960’s wade-ins. Ben Goggins / For Savannah Morning News
Three of these students, Edna Jackson, Evalena Hoskins, and Mary Gray, were there that day in 1960 and were back on the same beach, the same beach I have been with my children and grand children.
At the dedication ceremony, Tybee Island Historical Association Vice-President Allen Lewis said, “These students were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.”
These students were ordinary people.
Ordinary people who did extraordinary things.
They went for a swim on an August day at the beach.
Extraordinary things.
Mr. Lewis also said, “They put their beliefs to the test on Savannah Beach. That God has the divine power, and that the U.S. Constitution was on their side as they fought injustice and evil.”
“Faced with racial terror, the students responded to hate with love. To violence, with forgiveness. We remember these students for their hope. Hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Their courage. Because peace requires bravery. Their persistence. Because justice is a constant struggle. And their faith.”
They went for a swim on an August day at the beach.
Arlo Guthrie once said something along the lines that in a world where everything is going great, you would have to do an awful lot of good to standout, but in a world that sucks, you don’t have to do much to accomplish something good.
They went for a swim on an August day at the beach.
beach initially was deemed the most useless space undesirable
I was struck by this passage:
The lords of the beachfront were late to the coastal real estate game. The beach was initially deemed the most useless, undesirable space on the North American continent. (Imagine rushing past the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard in your haste to stake a land claim in Ohio.)
Back in the day I had a job interview with the Federal Government.
On the application there was a spot where I could list places where I could not work.
I listed California, Florida and Ohio.
The interviewer asked a lot of questions then said, “Where you can’t work. I certainly understand Florida and California, but what do you have against Ohio?”
Naming my Alma Mater answered his question.
I like the beach.
I can’t remember a time I did not like the beach.
I love the line in the movie Superman II, where Gene Hackman, as only Gene Hackman can, informed General Zod that, “Well, General … the world is a big place. Thank goodness my needs are small. I have a certain weakness for … beachfront property.“
I guess the idea that Ohio was populated by folks who rushed past the coast to get to Ohio pretty much says as much about Ohio as anyone needs to know.
If anyone needs anything more to know about Ohio, just consider the pantheon of personalities you meet when you name the 6 Ohio Presidents.
Grant.
Hayes.
Garfield.
McKinley.
Taft.
Harding.
Now there’s a Mount Rushmore no one ever proposed.
Three died in office and of those, two were shot dead and the other was poisoned by his wife (well that’s what I was told).
Talk about some sort of intervention.
But I digress.
I like the beach.
I like what Mr. Thoreau said when he said about the beach that, “A man may stand there and put all America behind him.”
I hope I would have stopped at the beach.
But right now, I like where I ended up.
Again as Mr. Thoreau says, The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
The wealthy eventually realized their error. They put property markers on perpetually shifting sand, built expensive homes and called in the Army to keep their beaches from drifting away. It’s hard to see how, exactly, they will hold on to much of this sea-level paradise in the face of rising waters and carbon-charged superstorms. But it’s not hard to guess who will end up covering their losses.
The wise man built his house upon the rock but he didn’t have the view and he still, most likely, didn’t have a basement.
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