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.

10.29.2021 – sunny sunshine sounds

sunny sunshine sounds
waves, birds, wind, kids screaming squeals
pop of a pop top

Sitting on the beach in South Carolina on Hilton Head Island on a Saturday afternoon can be a lot of things.

Quiet is not one of them.

Start with all the sounds of the beach.

Add in all the sounds of people at the beach.

Through it all, like a knife, I can hear the clear click of a pop can (beer can, flavored sparkling water can) cut across on the audio clutter.

On a hot day, it sounds good.

Back in the day in 7th Grade science class at Riverside Junior Highschool in Grand Rapids, Michigan, our teacher Mr. Bultman, was preparing a demonstration.

With a large beaker of water, Mr. Bultman poured filled up a tall graduated cylinder.

As Mr. Bultman poured, you could hear a glug glug glug with a rising interogative like an Australian sentence.

The class went quiet.

The sound stirred something in all of us.

Mr. Bultman stopped pouring and set the beaker down.

Mr. Bultman looked out at us, smiling in the quiet.

“Pour me one of those too,” said Mr. Bultman with a big grin.

The class paused.

Then burst out laughing.

The whole room was on the the same page.

It sounded … delicious.

Part of a series based on afternoons spent at the beach on Hilton Head Island.

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.

Click here for more Haiku in the BEACH category —

10.28.2021 – fearlessness of kids

fearlessness of kids
facing each wave after wave
fearlessly fearless

Louder than gulls the little children scream
Whom fathers haul into the jovial foam;
But others fearlessly rush in, breast high,
Laughing the salty water from their mouthes-
Heroes of the nursery.

Robert Graves – The Beach

Robert Graves or Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) maybe more well known for his books on mythology that were all college reading lists but could be safely avoided as no Professor who ever include an exam question based on them.

From Wikipedia: Robert Graves was a British poet, historical novelist, critic, and classicist.

His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celticists and students of Irish mythology.

Graves produced more than 140 works in his lifetime.

His poems, his translations and innovative analysis of the Greek myths, his memoir of his early life- including his role in World War I – Good-Bye to All That, and his speculative study of poetic inspiration The White Goddess have never been out of print.

It was Mr. Graves who once said, “The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.”

I like that.

But it is his quote on money and poetry that I will get on a T Shirt.

A T Shirt that I wouldn’t wear but I am not getting a tattoo so what can you do?

Anyway, Mr. Graves said, “There’s no money in poetry, but there’s no poetry in money, either.”

That suits me fine.

Part of a series based on afternoons spent at the beach on Hilton Head Island.

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.

Click here for more Haiku from the BEACH

10.27.2021 – despair of being

despair of being
able to convey my own
idea of this place

My wife tells me to stop writing about how beautiful this place is.

Keep it up, she says, and everyone will come here.

I know what SHE means.

Still …

I do think I should stop writing about being here in the low country of South Carolina in general and more specifically the beaches of Hilton Head Island the bluff overlooking the May River in Bluffton.

Not because I worry about visitors.

But because I only have words to use.

Anthony Trollope, the English novelist, once wrote about Sydney Australia, “I despair of being able to convey to any reader my own idea of the beauty of Sydney Harbour.”

I know what HE means.

I grew up in West Michigan and they were lots of places that would also bring me to despair if I tried to describe.

But there is something beyond here.

Maybe its that the landscape doesn’t turn white 6 months of the year.

Maybe I am older.

Maybe after a dozen years in Atlanta.

Maybe it is just me and other people have other places.

Thomas Jefferson described the view of Harper’s Ferry, where the the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers come together, from what is known as ‘Jefferson’s Rock’ with the words, “This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.”

I have been to Harper’s Ferry a couple of times.

I have stood on Jefferson’s Rock.

As I was about 12 years old, the view didn’t move me to despair at being able to convey my idea of the place.

It was cool.

That was all the words I needed.

I mention that you are no longer allowed to stand on the rock itself and it is cordoned off today.

I have to say, in the spirt of transparency, I have never made a voyage across the Atlantic.

When Mr. Jefferson wrote, “This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic,” it was quite the tribute as a voyage across the Atlantic was no picnic.

As Mr. Johnson* more of less said, “All the fun of jail with the chance of drowning thrown in.”

But then comparing the spot to the experience of the voyage, maybe the bar was set low by Mr. Jefferson.

Again from something close to what Mr. Johnson said, “Worth seeing, but not worth going to see.”

Maybe, just maybe, here where I am now, IS quite a spot.

Worth seeing.

Worth going to see.

Worth a voyage across the Atlantic.

I can say that for sure.

But I despair over the lack of words to convey my idea on how to convey the beauty of this area.

Just typing those words I despair at how limited the word ‘beauty‘ is.

In spite of my despair, I am quite content.

Content to sit on the beach and watch.

Content to sit on the bluff and look.

Content to be still.

It says in the Book of Psalms, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

It says in the Book of Psalms, “I will be exalted in the earth.”

I guess that is they key to understanding this type of places.

God will be exalted in the earth.

These places are God just showing off.

These places cannot be conveyed in words.

I am going try.

Often called Dr. Johnson (1709-1784), was an English writer who made lasting contributions … according to Wikipedia, but known mostly for today for those two quotes.

10.25.2021 – things in our lifetime

things in our lifetime
almost everything has not
been invented yet

Tom Morey has died.

Mr. Morey was 86.

In my collection of Names What You Should Know, Tom Morey is listed under M for Morey and F for fun.

Is his obituary in the Guardian, it says, “The most significant person to get people in the water.“

Tom Morey invented the boogie board.

Tom Morey invented the boogie board back in 1971.

Mr. Morey was a surfer who thought maybe surfing could be brought more into the world of the casual beach goer.

Sol Morey, Tom Morey’s oldest son is quoted as saying, “There’s this dynamic of toughness involved with surfing, but now you had grandads, kids, who could skim it.

They could stand up on it.

It was soft.

When you are able to go into the ocean and come out of it unscathed, unhurt, that really does something to you.

The ocean is something to be feared, but the Boogie Board took some of that fear out.“

I live on the ocean now.

I understand it is something to be respected and feared and I respect and, well, kind of fear the ocean.

I swim so far out that my wife calls me ‘first course’ as the sharks will get me first.

I love the water.

I love to see people in the water.

That some one had to invent the boogie board, I see so many of them on the beach, never occured to me in my brain.

I would have thought that, had I thought that, that they had been invented by a Walmart Marketing team tasked with ‘What can we create that everyone will buy when on vacation with a price coming in around $20.”

To learn that they had been ‘invented’ was kind of cool.

To learn that they had been invented with the goal to get more people in the water and to take some of the fear of the water out of the equation was kind of freaking cool.

I have to look around and look at all sorts of every day things for the beach as well as the home and every day life and think who came up with that?

Then to think ahead.

What is coming next?

Putting Tom Morey into the Google for more information I came across another obit.

Another one I found in the University of Southern California (the west coast USC, the Unbelievable Spoiled Children one) Alumni News, that quoted Mr. Morey as saying, “Almost everything has not been invented yet.“

Almost everything has not been invented yet.

As I seem to read everything I can lay my hands, I say that certain phrases and thoughts and combinations of words catch my eye and stop me for a second on that spot of text.

I have to say that, in my humble opinion, that phrase, almost everything has not been invented yet, is really kind of freaking pretty cool.

And when you add to the mix in your brain, that it was said by a guy who invented something with the purpose of making the ocean MORE fun, I again think, what is coming next.

I can look ahead.

It is not ALL bad.

Not all despair.

Not all covid.

Not all poltics.

There are boogie boards out there in all walks of life that are just waiting to be invented.

Maybe I’ll spray paint it on my wall.

Almost everything has not been invented yet.

I feel that I could be the next great inspirational speaker and deliver lectures at $100 a ticket and just tell the story of Mr. Morey and the boogie board.

I could wear shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and carry a boogie board on stage.

I would say, with dramatic pauses, “Almost everything … has NOT … been invented yet.”

I’d make millions.

Maybe I’ll come up with next boogie board.

Who knows who will?

I do know this.

Next time I am at the beach, I am bringing a couple of flowers or something and I am tossing them into the ocean.

And I am going to say thank you to Tom Morey.

10.24.21 – line of horizon

line of horizon
disappears into the sky
clouds waves reflections

Part of a series based on an afternoon spent at the beach on Hilton Head Island.

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.

Click here for more Haiku in the BEACH category —