Tag Archives: ocean

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regarding rain, ocean and asphalt

the road is wet in the morning
northwest normal and I stop
loading the car because the rainbow
of gasoline is spread slick on the asphalt

I think this is gasoline not oil
from the size and color of the slick
I take a picture with my phone
the rainbow against the grey blue in the low light is beautiful

Is this from one car at the stop sign
or is it leaking from the street itself
as it appears and if so, what does that mean?
I comfort myself that it is not from my cars

What is happening to our environment?
where is this from? This is no doubt human
activity creating this slick. If I dropped a match
on my street would it burn in the rain?

I still want to lie on the street in the rain
sometimes tear my clothes and weep oceans howl
for love for loss for grief. If I did it here
I might be more flammable: ignition achieved

 

I already posted this photograph a week ago…. but then, a poem was published on everything2.com with this title. The title and the photograph kept rattling around in my head until I wrote a poem as well. There are four poems now with that title here: regarding rain, ocean and asphalt.

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Among rocks

These are just rocks, right? We heard the birds in the rocks before we saw them: black oystercatchers. They make a wonderfulย  queep call and we stopped to look for them right away. They are very quick searching the rocks. This is taken with a zoom lens and I didn’t want to go closer and disturb them.

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Moon rise

My sleep cycle is a bit messed up, so I am up in the night. Here is a moon rise, more blue….

Doing rural medicine and attending deliveries and inpatient and call for years, I don’t worry if my sleep cycle is off time. I am happy to fall asleep early and don’t care if I am up in the night! There were years where I had call weekends of 72 hours or worked in clinic after a clinic day and being up most of the night. I like sleep but I don’t worry about when…. it is all good….

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Cape hike and clay layers

My friend J is here for the weekend. He used to live here. High tide was around 9 yesterday and he invited me on a long beach hike. From North Beach to Cape George and back. J says that this is 10-12 miles round trip.

We park at North Beach and start the hike. The tide was still going out. The beach curves along bluffs that get quite high. These bluffs are a mix of clay and sand and sections collapse. I was walking along North Beach once when it was raining after a dry spell. I hear little trickles of sand and there are small collapses that I can see…. I turned back.

This is a photo of the bluff after a fairly recent big collapse. The chunks of clay and rock and trees go all the way out to the water line. J. has seen a big collapse when hiking and said it was terrifying.

clay-3

The chunks of clay are a dark grey, a lighter gray and an orange color and there they are in the cliff face. We both wish that we had more geology training.

clay-2

The hike was beautiful. My feet complained at me for the last half mile coming back. J. said that he has invited more than 20 people to go with him over the years, and I am the only one who has. I am glad that I didn’t whine. Today I am limping a bit and sore, but it will get better.

A beautiful hike….