A NEW BOOK

I'm excited! My new book came today! Well, a "new" used book - and it's in perfect condition. I ordered Pacific Light - a book of photographs by Douglas Steakley, poems by Ric Masten. As I've said before, Monterey County in California is my favorite spot in this world, and this book brings it right here to me.


The Foreword is by Jane Smiley. Her last paragraphs say it for me. Of Ric's poems, she says: "...they remind us that it is possible to live in this world and not destroy it, over-run it, reduce it to a parking lot, but to reside right by the beauty, in balance with it." And then: "Doug's images remind us what the camera is for - to catch time in its passing and give ourselves the opportunity to ponder and experience what we would otherwise overlook. " and finally: "Taken together, they are a wonder."


In Ric's own Preface, he ends with,

"think
of the photographs as poems
the words
merely afterthoughts"

I don't think so, Ric.


I've only explored a little of it so far. Excuse me now, please. Have to go and allow myself to be carried 3000 miles away.

Re-Reading Books

Recently, Nina, of Nature Remains left me a comment asking if I had read Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It was a familiar title, but I was having a senior moment, and couldn't remember the book right away. I asked my daughter to bring it to me from the library where she works. She did this, and also reminded me that I had once given her a copy.

As soon as I started to read, I recognized the words as old friends.

I love re-reading a really good book. I cannot understand people who do the read through, and then discard it. I want to see the book on the shelf. Just knowing that it is there and that I can return to it whenever, makes me happy. Put it down to another of my little idiosyncrasies. Books are my friends. I cannot discard them. I solve the problem of overflow by passing them to my daughter, reasoning that they aren't far away when they are with her. I can always visit, or borrow them back.

Gift from the Sea holds charming analogies involving, among other things, some of my favorite things - sea shells. It is a really lovely little book, well worth your time. If you'll excuse me now, I am going to go back and finish re-reading it.

Before I go - One brief quote from Anne Morrow Lindbergh:

"If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others."