Langston Hughes' "Island"

ISLAND

Wave of sorrow,
Do not drown me now:

I see the island
Still ahead somehow.

I see the island
And its sands are fair:

Wave of sorrow,
Take me there.

--Langston Hughes



(Thanks, Mi Robin)

Reading Dickens: Reflection In Action

Today I started reading Dickens' David Copperfield for the second time in my life because of something novelist David Corbett shared in a speech at Marin's best bookstore Book Passage last week. I am realizing that I haven't read this novel in more than 30 years, not since undergraduate days.  I am enjoying the opening puzzle about "the hero of my own life" and the bit on "meandering" also on the first page, but then I encountered this paragraph on early memories, on the people who tend to have such strong powers of memory, and on the other qualities that such people tend to possess, and I found this passage resonant. I certainly have retained my "capacity of being pleased," which is no small thing, and I wish the capacity of being happy in life on all.

Here's the passage:

This may be fancy, though I think the memory of most of us can go farther back into such times than many of us suppose; just as I believe the power of observation in numbers of very young children to be quite wonderful for its closeness and accuracy. Indeed, I think that most grown men who are remarkable in this respect, may with greater propriety be said not to have lost the faculty, than to have acquired it; the rather, as I generally observe such men to retain a certain freshness, and gentleness, and capacity of being pleased, which are also an inheritance they have preserved from their childhood.

--Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Ch. 2

Oddly enough, or not, I feel just a bit closer to the novelist and to his autobiographical narrator too.

Kayak Mendocino Tour

Here are images from a recent outing with tour-company Mendocino Kayaking.  

You can find the company website here.  In this instance, we paddled south from Van Damme State Beach and cruised through some sea caves and rock gardens, enjoying the ocean, the sea life, the rock formations, and the excitement of such an outing on a fine, if overcast day.  As I can attest from years of going out on such tours, Craig Comen and his guides are friendly, knowledgeable, and safety-conscious.  The sit-on-top kayaks are easy to paddle also.  Fun for the whole family at very reasonable rates.  Check out Mendocino Kayaking for yourself.  

Quick Cave Jaunt

Just to the north around the first corner from Van Damme State Beach, there are a couple of easily accessible caves, as well as many other caves further to the north and to the south as well.  Here are the shots for the second of the caves.  

I prefer to enter against the swell, at least my first time through a cave on a specific day.  I am a bit more in control heading into the current and push than if I were moving with the water's motion, perhaps caught in the water's fist and thrown with more force and direction than I'd prefer.  Of course, once I have a better idea of the flow patterns inside the cave, and if it's fitting, I like heading inside with the push and rush too.

Inside, the cave is a lot darker than these shots convey; the flash on the camera illuminates a fair amount.  Now, the light coming in from outside is part of the beauty and attraction here.  The mouths of the cave beckon both from the outside and the inside.

The next shot catches the view straight up to the ceiling.  I wish I could turn down the flash for a better, more realistic effect, and yet still have enough light to convey something.  Inside, without the camera, you look up at the ceiling, fissured and jagged as it is, in glimpses governed by the light streaming in (or not); by the movement of the water that sends that light here, then there, flickeringly; and by your own vantage and curiosity.  I recall once wearing a long-billed cap against the bright sun outside and never quite realizing I should look up, for that bill worked too well to block my sight too.  Another time, the gloomy overcast outside didn't allow for enough light inside the cave to see much of anything at all, certainly not the "rafters".  Of course, such a cave with the inner depths (and heights) lost in shadow has another appeal.

Heading toward the exit, now.

Even an overcast day can seem quite bright after the cave's darkness.  I keep meaning to dismount from the kayak and swim about in there, but for some reason, I just haven't yet.

I was paddling solo here, but if you'd like to check out the sea-caves and rock gardens of the Mendocino waters, I definitely recommend Kayak Mendocino for tours.  Check out the company website here.

Van Damme Kayaking

The view from Van Damme State Beach, Mendocino County, CA.

This is just how I remember it . . . .  Feeling my way into the day's paddle.

Hmmm.  Maybe I'll head out there instead of toward the caves to the north . . . .

Sofia, my kayak, is a great dive workhorse, as you can see by all the gear secured here.  Luckily, I prefer free diving, for a tank and BC set-up (with the additional weights) transforms my plucky duck into a land turtle attempting to swim.  (Well, perhaps, not that bad. I do have to dig, dig, dig, when I strap that tank on the back.)  She's a tough kayak, wonderfully stable as a dive platform and in rough water, though she certainly doesn't like windless, flat days as much as her sleeker cousins do.

Happy kayaker, getting ready.  (That wetsuit is an O'Neill Psycho 1.  Just saying.)

Monet: A Clayfish Sequence

Monet, Clayfish in motion: sculpture mix; denim and floating blue glazing; transparent brown, floating blue, shino, and candy red glaze-drips.

The Flow Of Music: Two Poems From Moya Cannon

VIOL


Wherever music comes from
it much come through an instrument.
Perhaps that is why we love the instrument best
which is most like us--


a long neck,
a throat that loves touch,
gut,
a body that resonates,


and life, the bow of hair and wood
which works us through the necessary cacophonous hours,
which welds dark and light into one deep tone,
which plays us, reluctant, into music.




VIOLA D'AMORE


Sometimes love does die,
but sometimes, a stream on porous rock,
it slips down into the inner dark of a hill,
joins with other hidden streams
to travel blind as the white fish that live in it.
It forsakes one underground streambed
for the cave that runs under it.
Unseen, it informs the hill,
and, like the hidden strings of the viola d'amore,
makes the hill reverberate,
so that people who wander there
wonder why the hill sings,
wonder why they find wells.


--Moya Cannon

Mendocino Harbor Seals

Harbor seals south of Van Damme State Beach in Mendocino.  Here, you can see the bit of concern in the body language, so I made sure I stayed well back from the creature . . . .

At this point, there were seven or eight harbor seals hauled out or swimming about.  As usual, they kept at least one eye on the paddlers passing through.  The group was good about staying back far enough and moving on.

This next harbor seal looked just like a rock from a distance. I laughed to myself at the seal-shaped rock until I paddled close enough--but not too close--to see the wonderfully mottled creature.

 Okay, this next one doesn't quite count.

Moya Cannon's "Thalassa"

THALASSA

Having got up, decided to go home,
how often do we find ourselves
walking in the wrong direction.

Some echo under the stones
seduces our feet
leads them down again
by the grey, agitated sea.

--Moya Cannon

Just A Hint Of Swell

Mendocino waters, pretty mellow.