6/15/2015

Found while walking

8

It's possible to determine the seasons here
by what is washing up on the beach.  The tides
bring oyster shells in early summer,
multitudes of itty bitty crabs
and the particular seaweed that prints red on cloth.
Driftwood is plentiful
bleaching & cracking like rough skin in the sunshine.

It's heaven for the dogs.  Quinn is exuberant over her stick-chasing swims
while Isla is content to quietly sniff every log
up and down the shoreline for as long and as far as you'll let her.
Simple pleasures
enjoyed while I beach comb.


A lovely poem flew into my mailbox this morning from American Life in Poetry.
Although referencing the other coast, there's a truth here
to be found on all of them ... and within all of us.
I thought you might enjoy it.

Strewn 
It’d been a long winter, rags of snow hanging on; then, at the end
of April, an icy nor’easter, powerful as a hurricane. But now 
I’ve landed on the coast of Maine, visiting a friend who lives
two blocks from the ocean, and I can’t believe my luck, 
out this mild morning, race-walking along the strand. 
Every dog within fifty miles is off-leash, running 
for the sheer dopey joy of it. No one’s in the water,
but walkers and shellers leave their tracks on the hardpack. 
The flat sand shines as if varnished in a painting. Underfoot, 
strewn, are broken bits and pieces, deep indigo mussels, whorls
of whelk, chips of purple and white wampum, hinges of quahog, 
fragments of sand dollars. Nothing whole, everything 
broken, washed up here, stranded. The light pours down, a rinse 
of lemon on a cold plate. All of us, broken, some way 
or other. All of us dazzling in the brilliant slanting light.


 : : :
photo processing notes:
images shot with iPhone
double exposure created with Diana Photo app
edited on an iPad with Snapseed & Stackables apps
copyright added online with PicMonkey

: : :
... and if you've ever dreamed about walking the entire coastline of the UK
have a peek over on Ruth's Coastal Walk blog.
She's just been to Rhossili Beach
and you will not believe the unspoiled beauty ....


8 comments:

  1. i do love a good beach wander...yesterday's forest expedition with the dogs had a similar resonance....the wind in the pines sang wavelike songs and the dogs floated along washing over the greensward like waves rolling to the shore, occasionally kicking out their back legs in balletic expressions of sheer joy. no seashells, though your mention of seaweed reminds me i meant to collect some fresh red sawdust on the way home, but forgot entirely, being consumed with the beauty of the moment

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm imagining you & the woofs over there thoroughly enjoying yonder woods. Seems I forgot to gather the seaweed before coming home as well. Something catching, there is, in all this fresh air with such amiable companions that makes us both forget most everything else!

      Delete
  2. i can only agree a sea wandering, i do often without dog , but looking around you can find a lot of interesting things , depends of the wind

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know you miss your sweet Adele so I'm glad you keep walking, even without her, Bodil ... is always good for the soul somehow.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. ... and can you believe there are very few down there now, all washed away already or broken, or collected? I guess they are now truly *ghosts* !

      Delete
  4. Wish I lived closer to the ocean -- have to settle for our small pond and a occasional walk along a mountain stream or river.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I was quite young I remember someone telling me once that all streams & rivers led to the sea. Such a BIG concept for my small life experience at the time but it did help to alleviate the yearning. Funny tho because now I yearn for deserts sometimes. We humans are such annoyingly convoluted creatures.

      Delete