Eng 380 Pictures 06.04.07

Random Pictures From Over The Quarter

Mary Oliver 05.31.07

The Sun
~Mary Oliver

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled seas,
and is gone-
and how it slides again

out of the blackness
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance
and have you ever felt for anything

such a wild love
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed
or have you too
turned from this world

or have you too
gone crazy
for power
for things?

This poem by Mary Oliver is by far my favorite that we have read the entire quarter.

The way she describes the rising and setting of the sun creates such a beautiful and vivid image. Words such as "floats" and "slides" describes the "relaxed and easy" movement of the sun every night and every morning.

In the fourth stanza, she plays with the colors of the sun rise comparing the sun to a red flower. This red flower is set against the blackness of every morning. This contrast of red and black again gave me such a vivid description of the sun rising.

In the sixth stanza Mary Oliver describes this love that she has for the sun. She asks if there is a word anywhere "billowing enough" to describe the pleasure you get from watching the sun. The use of the word billowing gives you the impression of a word not being able to contain the
amount of pleasure the sun seems to fill you with.

At the end of the poem, she almost poses a question to the reader, asking if you are able to sit there and enjoy the beauty and majesty of the sun without being able to hold it in your hand? She asks "have you too gone crazy for power, for things?"

Surfing 05.28.07

Laying on my surfboard, I paddle out against the current. I seem to glide across the water easily. The first wave rolls toward me, I duck under it. I can feel the ice cold water stream down the back of my wetsuit. I surface on the backside of the wave, the taste of salt water in my mouth.
I don't have time to catch my breath before the next wave is upon me. It's a constant battle to make it out past the break. Once out far enough I relax and gaze back at the shore. It's a different point of view looking from the ocean. I think maybe this is what it looks like from a sea otter's perspective.

As a new set comes in, I get ready to catch my first wave. I wait patiently for one I feel is right. I see it gently rolling in and I start to paddle towards the shore. As it catches up to me I paddle harder, putting all my energy into digging my arms into the water. I can feel the power of the wave start to pull me as I jump up onto my feet and ride out the wave.
The power of the ocean amazes me. One misstep on my board and I become part of the tumultuous crashing of the water; when up and down blend together and you are unable to determine which is which.

Pond 05.22.07

The fish slip, slide and glide through the murky water of the pond.
It seems as though they do it effortlessly. They are weightless.
It's a constant game in this pond. Fish of all sizes chase each other in a never ending game of tag.
Dodging in and out of the slimey moss, tall reeds and floating debri.
Each rapid movement sends ripples across the surface of the water.

The bigger fish fall back into the mazelike structure of the reeds. Lurking, almost hiding as not to be caught up in the chaos.

Pirates Cove 5.21.07

One of my favorite places in San Luis County are the isolated shores of Pirates Cove beach. Protected from the chill of the wind and the gaze of others, it is a great place to lay out and enjoy the beautiful weather the central coast offers. As I lay out on the soft sand I close my eyes and listen to the water gently lapping up onto the shore and the rocks nearby. Seagulls soar above and every so often they let out a soft "caw" as to keep others aware of their presence.

Down the beach, a few regulars have started a pick up game of volleyball. Sometimes you can catch the Naked Volleyball league out here on the beach.

The sun glared down from its perch in the heavens, its blaze not letting up for a second. The only relief from the persistent heat was an occasional breeze which offered a few moments of comfort.

Driving Through the Desert 05.15.07

Over the weekend, seven of my friends and I made the 432 mile drive to Las Vegas, Nevada to celebrate all of our 21st birthdays. As I watched the thermometer in my car flirt with three digit temperatures, I thought back to the readings in "Land of Little Rain." Before this weekend I had had little experience in the desert. The only images I had where those I had seen on T.V. on the Discovery channel.
The landscape laid out before me was much different than I had pictured. There was much more plant life than I had expected. Deserts to me were supposed to look like the vast sand dunes like those in the movie Aladin. I suppose Disney movies are not the best resource to base my impressions on.
As we drove on the two lane highway through the heat, I imagined what it must have looked like to those traveling across the country in their covered wagons; no highway, no telephone lines and no reststops. With just the tiny, ankle-high shrubs there was no excape from the blazing heat radiating down from the sky. (At that moment I was thankful for the air conditioning technology pumping refreshingly cool air into my car.)
My mind then wandered to the kinds of wildlife that resides in these conditions and how well adapted they must be to the extreme lack of moisture in their surroundings. (Again I am thankful for the last gas station we stopped at where I purchased a liter of cold, bottled Aquafina water.) Part of me desired to pull off to the side of the road just to get a better look at what surrounded me, but I felt others in my car may not appreciate the stop as much as I would.

Wendell Berry Quote II 05.14.07

"I love the water of wells and springs and the taste of roofs in the water of the cisterns."
Water
~Wendell Berry

Everything tastes better when you know where it came from, especially if it came from something that you worked hard for. Cookies always taste better when made from scratch instead of the frozen dough you buy at the store.
Or the fresh vegetables you buy at Farmer's Market. Those are always better than what you can buy at Albertson's.