HERE COMES the FALL...

NIGHT by Robinson Jeffers ( 1887-1962) (excerpts)

The ebb slips from the rock, the sunken Tide-rocks lift streaming shoulders 

out of the slack, the slow west sombering its torch.

Over the dark mountain, over the dark pinewood, 

Down the long dark valley along the shrunken river

Returns the splendor without rays, the shining of shadow,

Peace-bringer, the matrix of all shining and quieter of shining

 where the shore widens on the bay she opens dark wings and the ocean accepts her glory.

Far off from here the slender flocks of the mountain forest

Move among stems like towers

Of the old redwoods to the stream, no twig crackling

Into the mountain water among the dark ferns.....

The tide, moving the night's vastness with lonely voices,

Turns, the deep dark-shining Pacific leans on the land

To the outmost margins: you Night will resume the stars in your time.

Truly the spouting fountains of light, Antares, Arcturus, tire of their flow,

They sing one song but they think silence.

And Life, the flicker of men and moths and the wolf on the hill

Have men's minds changed, or the rock hidden in the deep waters of the soul

Broken the surface?

A few centuries gone by, was none dared not to people

the darkness beyond the stars with harps....

But now , dear, is the truth...

Life is grown sweeter........

Photography 2025 "Night" by Robinson Jeffers  is in the public domain. It is a very long narrative in the epic style of Greek theatre...

WONDER. DREAMS. PAPER BOATS.;

PAPER BOATS ( 1913) Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 

                                        Childhood wonder , dreams and the journey .

Day by day I float my paper boats one by one down the running stream.

In big black letters I write my name on them, and the village where I live.

I hope that someone in some strange land will find them

And know who I am......

I load my little boats with shiuli flowers from our garden

(Shiuili :*Nycanthes arbor-tristis: fragrant night blooming Jasmine from south Asia)

I hope that these blooms of the dawn will be carried safely to land in the night...

I launch my paper boats and look up into the sky

and see the little clouds setting their white bulging sails.

I know not what playmate of mine in the sky sends them down the air to race with my boats!

When night comes I bury my face in my arms

And dream that my paper boats float on and on under the midnight stars.

The fairies of sleep are sailing in them

And the lading (*cargo) is their baskets full of dreams.........

"Clouds come floating into my sunset sky, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky...." -Tagore

Photographs 2025.

  "Paper Boats" is from the "Crescent Moon" collection  1913 by Rabindranath Tagore ( in the public domain)

 

A North Island Day

Miracle Beach, B.C.

Probably my favourite beach ever. Wide. Safe. The ocean pulls back at low tide to reveal  perfect sand bars, sand dollars, star fish, sea urchins, jelly fish. The water is warm in the pools, cold in the distance.

 "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." (Rachel Field 1894-1942)

Coast Mtns

  They extend from southwestern Yukon thru Alaska  and basically all the way down the coast of British Columbia south to the Fraser River.

                                              Salmon Point, B.C.
 Set on 28 acres of waterfront property overlooking the Strait of Georgia, the shoreline is mainly rocky, almost deserted beaches. In the fall, fishermen can be seen wading.There is a wonderful trail that snakes it's way through old fruit orchards. Also has an RV park with cottages. About 22 km from Campbell River. One of my favourite places.

  “The island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.”            ― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

 "You'll see blue water and wheeling gulls wherever your feet may go." -Rachel Field

Mt. Washington Range seen from my front window. On the eastern edge of the Vancouver Island Ranges of British Columbia. Up there is the Alpine Resort. It's about 25 km (16 mi) from the Comox Valley.

From Island hwy on way to Courtenay, B.C.

Cruise Ship passing 

In one evening, in Campbell River,there may be up to four  ships toddling through Seymour Narrows and down Discovery Passage. 

 “Poetry isn’t an island, it is the bridge. 
Poetry isn’t a ship, it is the lifeboat. Poetry isn’t swimming. Poetry is water.” 
― Kamand Kojouri

 “The serenity of the lulling ocean is a wondrous thing to behold..more precious than the gems coveted and covered in platinum or gold...”― Oksana Rus

 “The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” ― Ralph W. Sockman

                                                          Tide coming in at Miracle Beach, B.C.

                               On the way to Courtenay,B.C.....beneath hazy skies.

“Just take my hand, lead, dance with me...and I will simply follow the blueness of the water, the white waves rolling free...where the earth beneath my feet and stars make my heart whole again...in long and priceless moments of shared solitude...” ― Oksana Rus

 “I have to find a place to hide ,an island in the sea, surrounded by a racing tide,where I can live with me” 
― Laurie Matthew

                      From the Pier in Campbell River, B.C. Sunset in July
Photographs 2017