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.

12.11.2025 – truly light is sweet

truly light is sweet
pleasant thing it is for eyes
to behold the sun

Based on the Bible Verse, “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” Ecclesiastes 11:7 (KJV).

Regular readers know that I enjoy bragging that I work so close to the Atlantic Ocean that I am able to take a walk along the beach on my lunch hour.

It’s getting colder and the beach in winter isn’t as much fun as the beach in summer for many reasons but the draw is still there.

It is A BEACH.

The place where the land meets the ocean.

Still, I get asked, even by people I work with in this opportunely placed office, why?

Why do I walk the beach?

I can walk along and look out towards nothing and there are days where nothing is just what you want to, what you need to see.

In the book, The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk write of young officer Willie Keith that:

The sea was the one thing in Willie’s life that remained larger than Queeg.

The captain had swelled in his consciousness to an all-pervading presence, a giant of malice and evil; but when Willie filled his mind with the sight of the sea and the sky, he could, at least for a while, reduce Queeg to a sickly well-meaning man struggling with a job beyond his powers.

The hot little fevers of the Caine, the deadlines, the investigations, the queer ordinances, the dreaded tantrums, all these could dwindle and cool to comic pictures, contrasted with the sea — momentarily.

It was impossible for Willie to carry the vision back below decks.

One rake on his nerves, a wardroom buzzer, a penciled note, and he was sucked into the fever world again.

But the relief, while it lasted, was delicious and strengthening.

Willie lingered on the gloomy splashing forecastle for half an hour, gulping great breaths of the damp wind, and then went below.

All things dwindle and cool to comic pictures, contrasted with the sea — momentarily.

It is impossible, most of the time, but an iPhone photo can help, to carry the vision back.

But the relief, while it lasts is delicious and strengthening.

Boy HOWDY but I am privileged.

I get to walk along the beach at lunch time.

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.

12.5.2025 – does the grain of sand

does the grain of sand
know it is a grain of sand
in any order

Does the grain of sand
know it is a grain of sand?
Will secrets fly out of me
when I break open?
Are the stars standing
in any order?
Is supplication
useful?
Exactly.

Riprap #8 as published in The Leaf and Cloud by Mary Oliver (Da Capo: New York, 2000)

In the fly leaf to the copy of The Leaf and Cloud that I have is written:

AN ASTONISHING book-length poem in seven parts from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award With piercing clarity and craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned this unforgettable poem of questioning and discovery, about what is observable and what is not, about what passes and what persists.

Questioning and discovery.

About what is observable and what is not.

About what passes and what persists.

My regular readers know how I love to brag that when I am in the office, I get to spend my lunch hour walking the beach on the Atlantic Coast of South Carolina.

I take a sandy path through a salt marsh and then beach grass to the waters edge.

Its the same every day.

It is different every day.

It passes.

It persists.

It is observable.

It is unseen.

Does the grain of sand know it is a grain of sand?

Are the stars standing in any order?

Is supplication useful?

Observable or unseen?

There is a story told that back in World War 2, at one of the summit meetings of President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshall Josef Staling, Mr. Churchill mention that the point of view of the Pope should be considered on some point.

Mr. Stalin famously rebuked Mr. Churchill, saying something like, “The Pope, how many divisions does he have?”

Most historical accounts stop there.

But some do include Mr. Churchill’s response.

He said, “Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”

Are the stars standing in any order?

Is supplication useful?

Observable or unseen?

EXACTLY!

11.22.2025 – that time of year when

that time of year when
yellow leaves, none, or few, hang
shake against the cold

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare.

If you traveled the length and width of Beaufort County, South Carolina you might be hard pressed to find more fall color then is this little patch of trees near where I live.

Beaufort County is 40 miles long and 10 miles deep and covers the coast of South Carolina from Savannah to Charleston.

At high tide, 50% of Beaufort County is underwater.

The salt is in everything and there is not a lot of color you can get out of salt.

Growing up in Michigan, the local forests are a poor player for fall color.

Having lived in Atlanta for years, the local forests are just as lacking for spring color.

The simple pond in the picture has the very real chance to be home to both alligators and water mocassians but it sits in the middle of housing development surrounded by an lawn that invites you to bring a picnic lunch and sit and enjoy your surroundings.

If you do that and aren’t bother by the alligators or snakes, either the fire ants or the sand gnats will eat you alive.

So why do I live in this salt marsh swamp?

That one line there captured by Big Bill.

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold.

Its the end of November.

It is forecast to be in the low 80’s and we are off to the beach.

Now my favorite fall colors are the numberless shades of blue in the sky and in the water of the Atlantic Ocean.

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,

11.13.2025 – without wondering

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).

11.2.2025 – shake out every sail

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.