ventura beach revisited

                      Freddie in Ventura

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those amber sunsets

never set but hung in mind

resplendent always

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many years before

this beach and all that’s on it

were now, were mine

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time was not what it

now is nor is becoming

each moment stayed whole

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the waves held me fast

while the wind blew permanence

over solid sand

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gulls sat in the sky

as if transfixed or painted

by a maker’s hand

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a kid on a beach

– in the timeless space of life –

that kid’s always now

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freddie omm

ventura, september 2019

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The first of my haiku chains about Ventura beach was published here in December 2014: on ventura beach. I wrote this new one and took the photo while revisiting the beach last week. Here’s a shorter edit of the poem on Instagram.

on ventura beach: haiku chain

ventura keys bay

ventura keys bay

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borne on a loose-tongued tide

when dolphins sang in our bay,

i swam alongside.

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learning my english

in california, oh yeah –

i dug those endless sands

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west of ventura keys

soaked up the lingo in waves,

loghorreic seas,

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chilled long days drunk down

so deep, my first summer of love,

synaesthetized like

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a child of the sun –

honey-skied strands, peacemeal love,

kool-aid cookied, fun!

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like surf out of reach,

lyrics drift through smoke-tinged breeze

on ventura beach.

 

kool-aid cookies

kool-aid cookies

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