Ocean Haiku
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Seashore’s quiet pool
red starfish moves lazily
sun glints water glass
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Salt scent in breeze
dark wet mussel clings
sunlit seaweed
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Ridged dunes nudge the sky
salt winds whip sand white on blue
distant sea a line
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Incoming tide swells
sea spray leaps over boulders
screaming gulls seize fish
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Ocean fog obscures
old blind man knows direction
hears familiar shores
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The last haiku is a true story of my father’s final boat trip,
to his familiar San Juan Islands, when he was eighty.
He knew all the coves of the islands he had visited
for so many years, and was able to guide the
small boat back to shore by sound alone,
when no one else could see
anything at all.