Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Sarah Grace Tuttle Here. Thank you, Sarah, for hosting!
I am visiting my new grandson, Tommy, having left the beginning of summer in Central New York for the breezy, cool and foggy climate of Northern California. He is three months old and it’s a delight to see what he’s up to. He’s found his mouth with his hand, moving his limbs, watching us. He likes the boardbook, Chicken Soup With Rice, and I swear he’s listening and watching the pictures.
Pacifica, CA, is a great place to walk, though windy and foggy. I don’t mind. Today, I saw a paraglider over the ocean. (read about paragliding here on Wikipedia) I caught this on my phone. The paraglider must be moving thirty forty miles an hour. When they take to the wind, the paraglider can fly, it looks to me, twenty feet or more above the water.
PARAGLIDER
To air gusts
I alone confide
trusting only the wind
as I glide,
like a splayed seagull
twisting, sliding,
slicing the salt air
above the sea
escaping for a while
the tug
of gravity.
©Janice Scully 2025
Of course, you can hire someone to take you up in a paraglider, riding tandem. No experience necessary. No thanks! I prefer watching and imagining it, but it must be quite thrilling and one of those experiences like sky diving for those keeping bucket lists.
I bought some colored pencils and paper to draw the wildflowers on Mori Point two miles away from where we are staying. I drew from this photo.
With the help of Youtube videos about colored pencil drawing, I tried to capture the mix of green, blue and yellow with the ocean in the background. I thought the wild flowers would last a while, but they were gone in a week.
MORI POINT 5/1/25
Wildflowers bloom,
painting the hill in short strokes--
a brief impression.
My husband attended a demonstration to protest the private use of public lands. It was chilly and windy but many showed up and cars beeped. Hopefully we’ll make it to others. The attempts of some to steal our history from us is weighing on me, and so much more. It’s so disturbing! Here’s a picture. The use of public land to build golf courses or hotels, or to drill, will not be taken lightly.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone, and thank you, Sarah, for hosting!
Thank you for sharing your poems and protest today Janice. Keep on creating and fighting for our public lands! Your colored pencil drawing makes me think of Miss Rumphius and her lupine-dotted hillsides. Beautiful. “a brief impression” indeed, and a lovely one.
Thanks, Sarah. I just read your project and it is excellent! I hope it gets shared widely. Your poems are all so well done and evocative. 🙂 It must have felt good to get all these thoughts and feelings on paper.
Woah! is right! That looks thrilling…enough for me to be AO…audience only. But wow. I love the lightness in your verse. You capture that feeling of escaping gravity. California wildflowers are the bees knees in my book. I love them. And, I love that they are painting in your poem. Perfectly perfect.
What a wonder paragliding is! Not for me. I do love a good zipline, though. I love your poem with short lines and simple rhymes. You make the writing seem effortless. Beautiful!
Wowza, I would enjoy seeing someone else paraglide, but I think I’ll stay on the beach. 😀
Thank you for all this wonder today, Janice. I love your pencil drawing! The colors of the wildflowers and the sea are so complementary. The words you used in the poem – painting and impression – are also very complementary. Enjoy your time with your grandson!
Wow–that video! “trusting only the wind” gives me thoughts in so many directions. Thanks, Janice. That might be a poem seed for me. Love your joy in Tommy, flowers, creating art, creating poems–you’re a treasure! xo
Janice, the video is amazing. There’s a feeling of exhileration while watching the paraglider float into the sky. Your poem on paragliding was made for an interesting adventure. This line made me pause and ponder on the experience: slicing the salt air/above the sea. Thank you for sharing this and your widlfower artwork and haiku. Enjoy your time with your grandson, Tommy.
Not for me, either, those heights and that tenuous connection. I prefer a bit of solid ground underneath me. Your wildflowers reminded me that once on a camping trip, we woke to find a whole hillside covered in poppies–it was green when we went to sleep! Thank you for paying attention to the potential loss of public lands. I am heartened each time I see someone speak out.
I need to follow your lead and not just take my art supplies along on trips, but actually slow down enough to USE them! Your wildflowers are gorgeous! And don’t you find that spending time looking closely at a photo while you recreate it with your own hand puts you back in the moment? I have had that feeling as I worked on fabric collages of photos from our trip to Scotland.
Yes, drawing those flowers did take me back there. A fabric collage sounds challenging and I hope you might share one. Would love to see what you’re doing!
Janice,
You’ve been busy. Congratulations on having a new grandson. I love both of your poems and that you are drawing. The wildflower drawing is lovely. We saw kite surfers in the USVI last winter. They put on a show during the weekends. It’s fun to watch. You inspired me to try to write about that.
Sounds like a wonderful trip, and thanks for participating in action for public lands! Love the sounds and rhythm in your PARAGLIDER Poem, I would be an avid sideline observer too! Handsome capturing of MORI POINT in both words and your art! I’ve always loved “Chicken Soup with Rice, itS a very moving and animated story, and did you know they made a video of it. Thanks for your rich post Janice!