seeking water

There is a thin trail of ants coming from a small hole behind the sink. Back and forth, they follow their invisible path across the porcelain landscape. They pass along the metal rise of the faucet, and up to its curved, moist lip. In southern California we are all looking for sources of water.

poem by Yajie

a poem inspired by the photo...

beach at White's Point, San Pedro, California
--after Betsy Lohrer Hall

Are they sea lions or stones
lichen and salt crusted, half buried
in sands and wet    whatever

their nature    laying there   a new archipelago
eternally sniffing    some anchored things
on the floating sea
edge

exposed and poised
they have nothing to do
with the roaring waves ahead
or wrestle of wind and clouds above

exile   isolation   lonely stars
what matters to them    sound
loyal to light and dark
they perpetually
tune in to sea-song and  moon-move

mottled and peaceful
they lay    a new archipelago
can they assume another form and
take flight before a blinking eye

--vagabonds and travelers
of tides and time

~ by Yajie, January 2015

far away and right here

The question is not where did the traveler go? What places did he see?...but who was the traveler?...how genuine an experience did he get?    – Henry David Thoreau

I conceived of the Walden Here project when I was craving a long trip to a beautiful, natural place. The circumstances of my life prevented me from going very far. It was an opportunity to notice what was right in front of me.

Thoreau, Henry David, and Jeffrey S Cramer. I to Myself : An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. p. 121.