Date: August 16, 2011
Time: 2:15 p.m.
Mood: Expectant
RE: Departure
I headed for Hedgebrook today by way of water.
Once the grinding stop and go of I-5 North gave way to a smooth descent into Mukilteo, I sailed myself away to Whidbey Island on a ferry. Mid-August in Washington couldn’t get much better to pave my escape with its perfect blue skies backdropped to a beckoning island in the horizon.
As the azure water washed up against the side of the ferry and the wind swept through my loose hair, I thought to myself, “How poignant are these slapping waves?” I am cleansing myself from my life as I know it. With each ebb, I am erasing any constraints I have to concrete, to strip malls, to gridlock, to errands, to debit cards, to matching my shoes to my purse, to television sitcoms that can’t make me smile. I have to say, indifferently and selfishly and wickedly, I won’t miss a single urban thing.
2 comments:
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. - Thoreau
Have an enriching experience, Tams!
Cranberry Isles Poetry
Islesford Chantey
Cranberry Isles by James Belcher Ford
Cranberry Road by Rachel Field
If Once You Have Slept On An Island by Rachel Field
North of Time by Rachel Field
'And the Place Thereof...' by Rachel Field
I'd Like to be a Lighthouse by Rachel Field
Cranberry Isles Benediction by Arthur W. Forrester
'Twas a Mite Before Midnight by Arthur W. Forrester
Same Time, Next Year by Harlan Spence
Your Misty Dawning by Harlan Spence
Art & Poetry of Erik Schurink
Song for the Island adapted by Jim Gertmenian and Susan King
In Memorium (anon.)
My Island Home by Barbara Brooks
Ladies' Aid Society (anon.)
Fisherman's Funeral, Harry's Funeral by G.E. (Ted) Harlan
Island Car by G.E. (Ted) Harlan
Wreck of the Donhbe by G.E. (Ted) Harlan
Cranberry Isles, Maine by Carrie Richardson
My Island Home by E.T. Preble, 1876
Grandfather's House by E.T. Preble
I Like a Window Looking Out Upon the Sea, anon.
To An Isle in the Water by William Butler Yeats
A Toast to Barbara by Douglas A. Frank
Loopers a satiric poem by Douglas A. Frank
Hannah Caroline's Lament by Audrey Noether
Elfin Handkerchiefs by Rachel Field
Several poems by Paul Liebow new!
If Once You Have Slept On An Island
If once you have slept on an island
You'll never be quite the same;
You may look as you looked the day before
And go by the same old name,
You may bustle about in street and shop
You may sit at home and sew,
But you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls
Wherever your feet may go.
You may chat with the neighbors of this and that
And close to your fire keep,
But you'll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell
And tides beat through your sleep.
Oh! you won't know why and you can't say how
Such a change upon you came,
But once you have slept on an island,
You'll never be quite the same.
--- Rachel Field
We will keep with the poetry theme and post one of my favorites.
I am proud of you. Take all the risks and chances that you can. You are talented and unique. Embrace that and go forth.
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