The Columbia river pilots boat and the Astoria bridge are in view, also pilings
on which salmon canneries once perched. After rain on Friday, yesterday the
weather turned fabulous, and so there was absolutely nothing disappointing
about Cape Disappointment. In unusual sunshine this part of the world is
wonderful. Lunch from a hole in the wall, from which we were passed Japanese
pancakes stuffed with cabbage and fiddlehead ferns and pork belly, and who
knows what else. Delicious. The evening before was Bosnian food.
E. found where Mimo had been hiding eggs and confiscated a stash of seven, only
one of which floated when tested for freshness. Mimo was probably peeved but I
distracted them with a new taste of paradise: crumbs from the bottom of a bag
of chips.
"Greeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase!" was the best they could manage while gobbling.
Yesterday evening hanging out with E. and N. while L. attended a seminar to
celebrate the career of the head of the lab in which she did research, got a
little silly. Talk turned to dream jobs and the notion of a food cart
sommelier came up. At the pub, with a view of the sound we became even less
sound, inventing a game of Haiku consequences, which is to say one person
writes the first line, folds the paper over, passes it to he or she who will
write the next. I'm sure the examples below won't convey the fun of it and the
surprise when similarities and contrasts emerged, but you might get a hint.
Condensation line
Ripples in the ocean
Above ships lights float
Barley wine for two
A shipwreck and a dog shit
Soon stars will twinkle
Jumping photos suck
No Loch Ness in these waters
Saucing the mistakes
Salt, pepper, ketchup
Slow flows Columbia now
A love lost at sea
Dysentery kills
No moaning at the bar
The dark is delayed
The light fades away
Sun setting behind mountain
Nearer my god, thee
I bet you'll do better when you try it.
David Ritchie,
Astoria, Oregon
Sent from my
iPad------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
