The beach at Salmon Creek on the Sonoma County coast is one of the most spectacular and awe inspiring stretches of sand that I’ve ever set foot upon. My wife and I love this place. We recently spent an afternoon there, it was one of those warm and golden blue-sky winter days that make you glad to be alive. The otherworldly and dreamlike nature of Salmon Creek is similar to being on psychedelics without actually having to take the drugs (we did, however, smoke a bit of cannabis, just to give the day a little extra glow.)

The narrative form often fails me when I attempt to write about a day such as this, so I’ve chosen haiku instead. Our day was filled with these magical vignettes and that is what each of these poems represent. Enjoy.

• Three deer
• Still as sentinels
• Melt into dune grass

• Azure sky
• White with brushstrokes
• Cirrus and vapor trails

• Wave after wave
• Rolls from the sea
• Eternity

• Tiny footprints
• Random, delicate trails
• Woven through sand

• Bleached bones of driftwood
• Strewn like jack straws
• Up and down the beach

• Osprey descends
• Wings swept back
• Talons strike

• Four whale spouts
• Tiny puffs of smoke
• Timeless ocean dance