In Light of This

Some of my conferences are frankly depressing. I know that I've done my best as far as instructing these students but many of them are quite transparently trying to pull the wool over my eyes. Many have submitted frankly useless drafts which seem to have been put together in one night. There are few if any quotes, no citation and little organization. It is overwhelming because I am not sure what more I could do.

In light of this let's forget about 121 for a moment....

Here's a little floundering bit of semi-recent poetry


Yaquina Head

Sooth on sooth the sea
tosses and wears away the meanings

in an arching skyward cauldron
combusting ginkgo

A delta leaf vein tremulous
stilled in Holocene weed fields

Rosebay pointing up and up
spike on spike between clusters

Salal all finger-linked haunched
and sea air rounded in great hills

Yaquina Head Bird Mania

Today we went to the coast. Since we have a membership at the Oregon Coast Aquarium we tend to head off to Newport pretty often. Typically we go to the Aquarium, the Brewery and Hatfeild Marine Science Center. But today we went somewhere new, Yaquina Head. 

The head is just north of Agate Beach, where we frequently take the dogs to run along the long sandy beach, and look for treasures at low tide. Yaquina Head is managed by the BLM and is the site of an old light house first lit in 1873. Bird and Jan went into the lighthouse while I hung out on the back deck and watched some whales. There are several other awesome features at Yaquina. One is Cobble Beach which is a freakish place covered with nearly perfect round basalt cobbles that sing as the tide rolls in and out. Another lovely feature is Salal Hill, a 1000 ft trail that brings you to a great lookout over the ocean and lighthouse. It was totally worth the seven dollar parking fee. We saw many lovely harbor seals, whales, and tons of bird (Brandt's Cormorants, double crested Cormorants, brown Pelicans, white crowned sparrows, common Murres, and pigeons Guillemot) 

Needless to say I took plenty of photos and posted a good smattering of them on photobucket.

Tomorrow it's back to the grind, but today was a magically delightful day of seacoast, history, poetry, dog play, and hiking.