Tag Archives: ocean

The Ocean

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Day Zero of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). Or is it NaPoWriMo eve? I shall endeavor once again to meld with my muse and meet the challenge of writing a poem a day for the entire month of April.

Our first (Early Bird) prompt from NaPoWriMo.net is to 

Pick a word from the list below. Then write a poem titled either “A [your word]” or “The [your word]” in which you explore the meaning of the word, or some memory you have of it, as if you were writing an illustrative/alternative definition.

From the list (which I won’t reproduce here) I chose the word “ocean.” Hence:

The Ocean

Bestower of bounties:
one may fish for a feast
or dive to the depths 
plucking pearls from the peace.

Betrayer of boys
setting sail on the seas,
seduced by the Sirens,
then besieged by the beast.

Mantra of mindfulness,
mysterious muse,
meandering metronome,
hewer of hues.

Destroyer of destinies,
splitter of seams,
shattering ships and
drowning brash dreams.

Thunderous thralls turn to
tranquil translucence.
Balmy or bawdy,
a nymph or a nuisance. 

Such is the kaleidoscope,
the ebb and the flow.
We are moored to this tempest;
mind, body and soul.

Three Arches in Black & White

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When I saw the subject for this week’s Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge, I knew I had the perfect photo. The theme this week is “Arches, Domes and Half Circles.”

So here’s a photo of a half-circle window that abstractly depicts the Three Arch Rocks in Oceanside, OR. I just finished making this window and we installed it a couple of days ago.

If you’d like to see the window in color (recommended), I’ve posted it on my Glass Gallery page here.

Here are some more photos for the Challenge:

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Courtyard archway in Lake Oswego, OR

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Half-circle windows in the Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR.

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Archway at Battery Russell in Warrenton, OR.

 

A Photo I Wish Didn’t Exist ~ Repost

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I am reposting this important photo because the original post cut off the message of the photographer, Justin Hofman. Please read his comments below.

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This photo was posted by photographer Justin Hofman on Instagram, with permission to share.

Justin writes:

“It’s a photo that I wish didn’t exist but now that it does I want everyone to see it. What started as an opportunity to photograph a cute little sea horse turned into one of frustration and sadness as the incoming tide brought with it countless pieces of trash and sewage. This sea horse drifts long with the trash day in and day out as it rides the currents that flow along the Indonesian archipelago.

“It’s a photo that I wish didn’t exist but now that it does I want everyone to see it.”

~ Justin Hofman, photographer

“This photo serves as an allegory for the current and future state of our oceans. What sort of future are we creating? How can your actions shape our planet?

“Thanks to @eyosexpeditions for getting me there and to @nhm_wpy and @sea_legacy for getting this photo in front of as many eyes as possible. Go to @sea_legacy to see how you can make a difference. ”

 

A Photo I Wish Didn’t Exist

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justin hofman

This photo was posted by photographer Justin Hofman on Instagram, with permission to share.

Justin writes:

“It’s a photo that I wish didn’t exist but now that it does I want everyone to see it. What started as an opportunity to photograph a cute little sea horse turned into one of frustration and sadness as the incoming tide brought with it countless pieces of trash and sewage. This sea horse drifts long with the trash day in and day out as it rides the currents that flow along the Indonesian archipelago.

“It’s a photo that I wish didn’t exist but now that it does I want everyone to see it.”

~ Justin Hofman, photographer

“This photo serves as an allegory for the current and future state of our oceans. What sort of future are we creating? How can your actions shape our planet?

“Thanks to @eyosexpeditions for getting me there and to @nhm_wpy and @sea_legacy for getting this photo in front of as many eyes as possible. Go to @sea_legacy to see how you can make a difference. ”

 

World Oceans Day 2016

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I am reposting my thoughts from last year’s World Oceans Day. Now more than ever, our oceans are in need of protection.

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.”

~ Arthur C. Clarke

Expansive and deep,
beautiful but volatile,
ample force to turn
vessels to splinters.

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Teeming with life,
ceaselessly churning,
an indefatigable
dynamo.

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Kissed by the sun,
caressed by the winds,
extolled by poets
and sailors alike.

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Sustainer of life
as we know it on Earth,
yet with all its
grandeur and might…

still fragile.

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Jetsam: Lightening the Load

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Flotsam, Jetsam & Lagan: sounds like a prestigious law firm, doesn’t it? Or maybe a 1960s folk rock group? But no, these terms have a more nautical theme.

I’ll let dictionary.com explain:

Flotsam — 1. the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water. 2. material or refuse floating on water. 3. useless or unimportant items; odds and ends.

Lagan — anything sunk in the sea, but attached to a buoy or the like so that it may be recovered.

Jetsam — goods cast overboard deliberately, as to lighten a vessel or improve its stability in an emergency, which sink where jettisoned or are washed ashore.

⊕⊕⊕⊕⊕

I won’t be channeling my inner pirate here; I get seasick in the bath tub if I take my eyes off the horizon. The thought of people chucking things into the ocean intentionally is also rather sickening, but I’ll save that for another post.

The point of this post is:

 Life is like a shipwreck.

Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right… Anyway, I’ll wade in with my analogy:

Sometimes we go about life having taken on a lot of unnecessary “odds and ends,” and when we get hit with – “stormy weather” shall we say — we founder and end up floating about, all wet. The “useless and unimportant” baggage we were needlessly hanging onto bobs about pointlessly in the waves nearby as we frantically dog paddle and wait for rescue. That’s flotsam.

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Sometimes we get the “ship” kicked out of us and lose our footing on dry land, but we manage to take stock of what happened and what’s important to us, and we can devise a plan for how to recover from our losses. That’s lagan.

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And then there’s jetsam, when we rid ourselves of the unnecessary baggage that’s weighing us down, impeding our progress, or endangering our stability. And having done that – and continuing to do it – we sail through situations that might otherwise have sunk us.

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I’m striving for jetsam; lightening my load of unnecessary stress, worries and material “stuff.” It’s definitely an ongoing process. Stuff seems to seek us out at every port, clinging to us like barnacles on a boat.

Okay, swabbies, I think this ship has sailed. I’m off to the galley for some chow. I suddenly have a hankering for fish and chips.

J  J is for Jetsam.