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Another poem by Mary Oliver

Here is a link to a poem by Mary Oliver that I liked. She is destined to be remembered as a great American poet.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/08/11

What are you reading this summer?

This summer I have read several compelling books.

First I read A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation (.) by David W. Blight Ph. D. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+slave+no+more&sprefix=a+slave

This is an excellent commentary on two slave narratives and then includes the actual narratives. Slavery is the American holocaust. The U.S. should offer reparation to families of enslaved people. If you don't agree, just read a few slave narratives. I will read Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington this fall. I am enthralled with slavery and the Jim Crow era, though I am not sure why.

Next I read Broken Music by Sting. http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Music-Sting/dp/0440241154/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250087037&sr=8-1

This is a memoir by the pop star Gordon Sumner known as Sting, the bass player and front man for The Police.
It was a little hard to get into, but once in what a great story he has to tell. It covers his life from boyhood up until his first American tour with the Police, after which he became famous and filthy rich. The story is well told and compelling.

Now I am just finishing Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice http://www.amazon.com/Christ-Lord-Road-Anne-Rice/dp/1400078946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250087207&sr=1-1

This is a novel told in first person by Jesus of Nazareth. I heard about this somewhere on the web and had been wanting to read Anne Rice to see if she was any good. Turns out she is a good novelist and something of a Christian scholar. If you ever wondered what it was like to be a major Jewish prophet and Saviour of all mankind, this is a good book for you. Interesting read.

So what are you reading this summer?

:)

Sunset in Alaska

The sunsets on the west coast are usually different than those in the east. Right now, though, there is smoke in the air from forest fires in the Yukon, just over the mountains to the east, which have been causing beautiful sunsets similar to those I have seen back east.

Here is a sun set over Tee Harbor near Juneau.

Shade Seekers

The Grid at Aurora Harbor, Juneau Alaska

One of the coolest things about Juneau Alaska is the extreme tides. On average tides here change 16-18 feet per day. Compare that to 4 foot tides on the Chesapeake Bay, for example.

I love when people use natural forces to accomplish things. The grid at the harbor in Juneau is one of those devices that do this. The first photo shows a large working boat, looks like about 50 feet long, lifted out of the water.

In this photo you can see the bow and the timbers, just at the water line, that it is resting on. This is the grid.

Here is another shot of the grid a few minutes later. Notice the tide has gone out more and the boat is now out of the water more.

Here is a view back down the grid showing the boat now fully out of the water. Captains tie up their vessels above the grid at high tide, and within a few hours the tide lowers the boat onto the timbers of the grid, exposing the underside of the boat. There is a window of 6-8 hours during which the hull can be inspected, scraped, cleaned and even painted, and the props can be worked on.

Isn't this ingenious?

Glacier Falls

Bruce and I walked out to the glacier and the falls nearby tonight. As we get closer to moving away, my appreciation for the beauty of the world here is renewed. The falls are about 150 feet high, and are a half mile from the glacier.

As we got closer, the sound grew louder and louder. It is probably a half a city block wide at the base of the falls. It throws off a fine mist, but you can walk right up to the falls.

Bruce got excited as we came to the falls, (he thinks waves are alive and need to be hunted down and subdued). I got kinda going too...

Looking back over the lake which flows from the glacier, you can see icebergs floating, having calved in the past few days from the glacier.

There were only two people on the trail. There had probably been hundreds during the day, but they are all back on their cruise ships by sundown.

I will miss the ease of getting out into the wild and being alone with the splendors of creation.