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.
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.
despair of being able to convey my own idea of this place
Sunset over the May River
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.
Sunset on Hilton Head
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.”
View from Jefferson’s Rock
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.
Me and my brother Steve, about 1972?
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.
Marsh grass tangled after ‘king’ tide
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.
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.
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.
more blues in blue sky than can ever be counted blue bluer bluest
Pantone and the Pantone Color Matching System.
I first heard of it back in 1995 when I was working on the first corporate website I ever launched.
It was the first website for the corporation.
It was a lot of firsts and we were making up the book of rules as we went along.
It was … GREAT!
No rules!
No rules and me?
Bad idea.
Luckily for me and maybe the world, I did come up with one rule for myself that I have held to since this time.
That rule is, “No Horsing Around on the Website.”
Yes, I stole this rule from Dr. Strangelove when Major T. J. “King” Kong, played by Slim Pickins, says, “How many times do I have to tell you boys, I don’t want no horsing around on the airplane.”
It’s one of the few rules I have ever held to and it has saved my career more than once.
Anyway, at that time, the Corporate Branding Team came to meet with me about using the correct logos and fonts and colors on this Web Site.
As for logos, I said, get me a graphic in that new JPEG format and make sure the file is less than 20k and make sure the file extension is jpg as the internet cannot handle a 4 letter file.
For the fonts, I had Arial, Helvetica and Times New Roman.
For the color palette, I had 16 colors and that included black AND white.
The Art Department had the first versions of Adobe and it had 256 colors.
256 colors developed by the Pantone Color Matching System.
According to Pantone, it was all the colors that the human eye could decern.
I used to have one of those early Pantone Color Card Sets which which a set of cards attached at the top left corner of all 256 colors so you could fan out the colors and see how they looked much like the paint color cards you can get a Lowes.
It was years before monitors developed to the point that these colors could be mechanically visually reproduced.
Today the Pantone Color Matching System now lists 2161 colors.
Of those 2161 colors there are some 238 versions of blue.
These colors were identified, developed or created through years of lab work and research.
Pantone admits that some of the differences MAY NOT BE visible to human eye.
I want to ask WHY but I have been in too many meetings where someone has looked at logo or webpage and said, “I don’t know, maybe if it was just a shade more ultramarine … know what I mean?”
I say, “You Bet” and change the color from Denim Blue to Ocean Blue and the world goes on.
Which brings me to that color, Ocean Blue.
Pantone 300.
In hexidecimal, #006ec7.
A medium dark shade of cyan-blue.
In the RGB color model, #006ec7 is comprised of 0% red, 43.14% green and 78.04% blue.
In the HSL color space, #006ec7 has a hue of 207° (degrees), 100% saturation and 39% lightness.
This color has an approximate wavelength of 475.22 nm.
This color is used in the Groningen flag and Pitcairn Islands flag.
Groningen Flag
That last little factoid cracked me up.
I am one of those genetic freaks with blue eyes.
As the blue eye gene is recessive it seems that over time, no one should have blue eyes.
At this point in time, only 8% of the worlds peoples have blue eyes.
To perpetuate blue eyes you need a tight knit community that doesn’t really like anyone else and pretty much stays grumpy and together by themselves.
You know.
Like Dutch people.
Like the people from Groningen, a province of the Netherlands.
Where my ancestors came from.
Anyway, at the beach, looking out at the water.
Looking out at the sky.
I can see Ocean Blue, Pantone 300 (#006ec7).
I can see all 238 versions of Pantone Blues.
I’ll bet I can see more than 238 versions of blue.
Much like the old joke, What was the largest island in the world before Greenland was discovered? – the answer is Greenland – just because it wasn’t discovered doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
All these colors were there before Pantone.
All these colors existed before they were registered by Pantone.
That Pantone HAS registered these colors and prevents some users from using them reminds me of the story of Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin.
Mr. Churchill asked Mr. Chaplin if he was planning any new roles to play.
Mr. Chapin said, “Yes, Jesus Christ.”
“Have you cleared the rights?”, asked Mr. Churchill.
Color.
Colors.
Talk to me about your fall colors.
Tell me about your reds and golds and yellows.
I’ll take my blues.
A color.
A music.
A feeling.
These things happen daily, but by accident?
Just happy to be here to watch the show.
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.
