07 Friday Aug 2015
Posted in Experimental, Photography, Poetry, Sea
Tags
Abstract, Beach, Black and White, Florida, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Poetry, Sea, Water
Sibilant words
Lumber off the sea
Ocean static
Fills my ears
The dunes shrug
Cicadas throbbing
The scent of distant rain
Hanging in a hammock
Of gauzy wind
Fingers probe
Like crab claws
In cold-packed sand
As I listen
To the conversation
Of the waves beyond
20 Saturday Dec 2014
Posted in Photography, Quotations, Sea
Tags
Abstract, Beach, Black and White, Blur, Drear, Experimental Photography, Nature, Ocean, Pensive, Photography, Quotes, Sand, Sea, Twilight
“He opens his eyes and stares directly into the morning sun which wallows up from the misty sea like some bloated, dying fish. The sky is gray and immobile, a dome of lead. A cloud hangs mute and dark over the western horizon. High up, barely visible, a seagull floats on motionless wings. Its cry is weird and restless.”
– Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal
“I had forgotten that time wasn’t fixed like concrete but in fact was fluid as sand, or water. I had forgotten that even misery can end. ”
– Joyce Carol Oates, I Am No One You Know
“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.”
– Jack Kerouac, On the Road
16 Tuesday Dec 2014
Posted in Photography, Quotations, Sea
“I was a man who thrived on solitude… I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me.”
– Charles Bukowski, Factotum
“If you don’t become the ocean, you’ll be seasick every day.”
– Leonard Cohen
“The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you’ll never have.”
– Søren Kierkegaard
12 Friday Sep 2014
Posted in Photography, Sea, Stories, Video
Tags
Beach, Black and White, Dawn, Fishing, Florida, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Sea, Seabirds, Sharks, Sunrise, Surf, Video, Waves
(Some feeble footage above of some hunting bull-shark chums of mine as they spilled up into the shallow swash as the tide began to recede. Is there anything better than having a shark swim up into one’s lap? I think not!)
I had a meeting with the Sharks that Sunrise, and they kept their promise. I arrived to the bruised sight of a brooding squall that aged the sky, scudding in and consuming the Dawn.
Pale rosy lightning sniveled across the slate blue of cloud as a lone dolphin breached cold in the distance.
And there in the swash the pastel waves frilled and shivered as a cool wind lumbered forth, and a surge of fish spat out from the sea as the Sharks surfed right up to my feet.
The Surf Fisherman decided not to wade in. I know not why. The water was glorious.
27 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in Photography, Quotations
Tags
Abstract, BBC Podcast, Beach, Beauty, Black and White, Blur, Environmentalism, Florida, Life, Nature, Ocean, Pensive, Photography, Podcast, Quotes, Rachel Carson, Rachel Carson's Birthday, Salt, Sand, Science, Sea, Surf, Water
“In every out-thrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”
― Rachel Carson
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
― Rachel Carson
“It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”
― Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
― Rachel Carson
“In nature nothing exists alone.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
“But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
― Rachel Carson
“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”
― Rachel Carson
25 Saturday Jan 2014
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Quotations, Sea
Tags
Beach, Birds, Florida, Monochrome, Nature, Ocean, Palm Tree, Photography, Poetry, Sand, Satellite Beach, Sea, Sea Birds, Seagulls, Surf, Terns, Thoughts, Wave, Wave Photography, Winter Sea
Squinting sour
Shards of shell
In cherry light-
Sober morning
Tumbling like
Wintry waves
Of coy jade-
Disfigured thoughts
“The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.”
―Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
19 Thursday Dec 2013
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Sea
Tags
Beach, Black and White, Brevard, December, Florida, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Poetry, Sand, Satellite Beach, Sea, Seagull, Surf, Surfing, Waves
Cacophonous wind carries seagull drawls,
the bell buoy’s alarm and bleating boats.
Sweet breaths take in morning laughter,
fingers skimming the chiming waters;
the harmony of the sea
tickling the Surfer’s soul,
saline breeze against His back,
breaking waves beneath His toes.
Crying plaudit, the art of elation,
wax and salt, and squinting eyes,
greet the sun of auriferous creation.
Glitters what is born of Pastel Dawn.
A sky of free-thought and clarity,
testing the nerves, tempting Humanity-
recall no concept of finality,
spill like a wingless cherub
smiling inside the curling blue.
Poised, there, in the Glass Barrel
is the conception of Stillness–
where the rains never penetrate.
Surfer, encompass the ride eternally-
the ocean pulses through Your veins.
13 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted in Video
30 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Sea
Tags
Beach, Black and White, Black and White Photography, Brine, Florida, Monochrome, Nature, Ocean, Poem, Poetry, Sea, Surf, Surfers, Waves
Guttural beach-break
Sharks breaching the minty waves
Skimmers sweeping swash
Littoral loafing
Cormorant airing her wings
Sodden charcoal-black
Dune scarp tunnel-pocked
Ghost crab rushes to the brine
Sudsy spume hissing
Sanderlings hurry
As a rogue wave swamps the cusp
Children disappear
Fish tale washes in
Air redolent of sunscreen
Wax melting in sun
05 Monday Nov 2012
Posted in Humour, Introspection, Photography, Sea, Stories
Tags
Al Green, Beach, Black and White, Blunder, Carpe Diem, Clumsy, Falling, Florida, Frank Sinatra, Humour, Hurricane Sandy, Inspiration, James Dean, Jocularity, Laughter, Misadventure, Nature, Nina Simone, Ocean, Pablo Neruda, Photography, Silly, Story, Writing
It had been an animated and tempestuous day. My brooding attire seemed to match the weather, jeans soaked to the knee, suit-vest fluttering in the grave wind, the sky above an infinite blanket of dreary blue cloud. We were on our way home and I had receded into happy brooding, the wild weather so fitting for it. And then it happened.
The sun suddenly dissolved through, and the cloud cover began to disperse into a fantastic mackerel sky. Radiant gold spilled out and illuminated the soggy city. Everything glittered. Already near the beach, we hurried along toward the ocean, keen on one last photo-shoot.
After parking, I catapulted from the car. Sir sort of loitered behind. I was soon hoofing along through the dank and rippled sands toward the seethe. The sky was aflame. Patches of cloud beamed a rose and orange sherbet. The waters were cast in a lambent champagne pink. Everything was glorious.
A great oooing and ahhing crowd had amassed behind me, clustered on the boardwalk. It seemed a mutual song was playing amongst them- Nina Simone’s version of “Feeling Good” perhaps. I found myself in the throes of a wee jig, myself, to that fabulous tune. The creamy moon that had vanished in the clouds was beginning to crown at the top, and cast lovely splinters of silver light onto the surf.
And then it happened. A wee little line of water began to wheeze toward me. I noticed it, but was snapping photos, and was half-deciding to let it swath my already dank track shoes. Yet, as the water slipped closer, I found I was also in motion. My body was moving back to escape the water, but my feet hesitated and stayed put. And so the center-of-balance was yanked out of place. Gravity languidly began to tug at my spine. I realised taking a tumble in the water was not extremely healthy for a camera, so I attempted to flail. Flailing, in theory, can help regain balance. I was unsuccessful, however, and discovered I was ever so slowly falling just like a great, cumbersome fir being felled by a smiling, spritely little beaver. Eventually, I landed on my back, completely flattened. The little coy dribble of water had expanded from one inch to seven inches, and managed to completely sluice my entire body, from toe to nose, and even crawled all the way up my erect arm dramatically holding the camera above the onslaught.
Some sanderlings squeaked and quickly scuttled by. Bubbles crackled in my ear. I had just been completely conquered and overthrown by a gentle flow of ocean bubble-bath…
This did not do a thing to my jubilant spirits, other than elevate them. I leaped up as the water quickly receded and I was back upon a glass surface of shimmering sand. I found myself doing another wee jig as I suddenly became conscious of a rather eerie wheezing sound. I turned. It was my audience, er, I mean, the sunset-gazing crowd. A great long gasp had erupted from them in elongated synchrony. All eyes were widely agog, mouths ajar.
It was a strange moment; it was as if Babe Ruth had swaggered up to the bedrabbled plate, and missed the first two pitches to build tension, but on the third pitch, he points and grins, swings, and then promptly falls down, as the ball tumbles somewhere behind him. The crowd’s reaction I imagine would have been very similar indeed.
This pained me. I never like to see an audience, crowd rather, swathed in sorrow. I began to plod along through the dimpled sands toward the stairs. Sir joined me stunned with few words. I noticed that I was in fits of laugher, a bit of an uvid camera poised in my right hand. I could hear voices now.
“His camera!” a woman bugled.
His camera?
“Oooohhhh my GAWD! He’s gonna be so mad about his camera! I bet it’s totally ruined!” a young lass squealed.
He’s gonna be so mad?
“Yep, his camera is definitely shot,” said an older gentleman with conviction.
(An Aside: I could not help but notice all the male pronouns. It is true, I do slightly resemble James Dean, but still, I think it’s rather obvious I’m still a lass…oh right… I understand. Only a bloke would be so clumsy, eh? Well, I’ll have you know I’m the clumsiest lummox I know, and proud of it. And I am entirely lassie. HMPH!)
Well, I danced up the stairs, Sir following behind, and then soon vanishing to the car. I lingered a moment on the boardwalk, grinning amongst the luctual crowd. The song “Feeling Good” had definitely ceased, and was replaced with Al Green’s “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”. Or rather, “How Can You Mend a Broken Camera?”
I was wringing out the edges of my suit-vest, smiling to myself recollecting how I had purposely worn all cotton today, just in case…something damp and soggy was in store. Peculiar how one can sense these things, sometimes. I believe I was even laughing out loud when one kindly woman bravely stepped forward and spoke for all the haggard and grief-stricken onlookers, “I just wanted to say, I’m soooooo sorry about your camera. You must be devastated. It has to be ruined.”
I noticed her eyes were glistening. (My goodness…don’t tell me that is the shimmer of tears…great scott! What a serious lot this is!)
In my usual annoying custom, I chimed at her in a bit of an Irish brogue accompanied with a series of animated hops, “Oh nooooo lassie!! No fretting, no worrying yer heart out, there now! ‘Tis fine, I say, absolutely grand! This ol’ camera here will be just fine, indeed!”
It is true, the camera was definitely in a bit of a drizzly condition. But blast, I was determined to cheer this crowd that had clearly missed out on one grand chance for a chortle. I mean, you observe a squirrely lass take a spill after a great onslaught of a few inches of gentle water, and your first reaction is sorrow?! WHAT?! If it were a poor little girl pushed over by some picaresque and nefarious bully, I would understand, but come now! Well, I thought it was funny, and I was not going to suppress that.
I proceeded to chortle, immensely.
“So…” the lady began again, “your camera is going to be all right?”
“She’ll pull through!” I boomed.
A faintly, friable smile began to tremble upon her lips, “Oh, that’s wonderful!”
“Aye, arg, fabulous! Haw, haw, and how ridiculous that was, eh? Just think, of all the times I should have fallen, it had to happen when I least expected it. Such is life, eh?! I was wading IN Sandy’s surf, earlier today, wind roaring in my ears. No hint of gravity to take me down. After that, I decided to scrabble along some slimy rocks as torrents of water continuously slammed them. Not a slip. So, then I clambered right up a very slippery, dead mangrove tree that rocked violently right over the water, gust of hurricane winds slamming against me as I snapped away with the ol’ camera. No hint of slopping into the drink below. I even became grossly entangled in some ghastly thorny vine, and all the Fates should have dictated that I go tumbling right down the hill and into the brackish waters slapping the shore, but NO I managed to free myself unscathed! Even when I went skipping onto the world’s ricketiest, most water-slicked dock, sloshing in the water like a bath-toy, not a bit of it, not even the tiniest threat of falling. Then I come beetling over here, wander onto this seemingly tranquil and non-threatening beach, and I find myself, well, we found ourselves, rather, if you count briny camera here, completely flattened by a little trickle of harmless bubble-bath. Such moments, AYE they make me adore life indeed! TOO funny!!” I exclaimed.
Well, that did it. I noticed, at last, the lugubrious tone of the great, grieving crowd was ebbing away at last. Smiles began to creep out. Still in shock, a bit, but beginning to appreciate the humour, I could tell.
“Oh I hope someone got that on film!” I guffawed as I began to depart from my friends.
“Oh yeah I did,” I thought I heard someone mumble.
Yes, I left the crowd with a different tune, now. Frank Sinatra’s version of “That’s Life” was blasting away as we pulled out of the parking-lot and receded into the darkling antitwilight, on our way home.
A word to future onlookers- always laugh before you think. What a crime to take up worry when one could be laughing.
Mirth is important, aye! As our Pablo Neruda would likely say right now, possibly whilst puffing a wee stogie, a bit of a ludic smile playing at the edges of his lips ‘neath that pencil mustache (I think he had a pencil mustache…), “Laughter is the language of the Soul!”
Carpe Diem, and cheers,
Autumn Jade
A Day in the Brine 