breakfast outside
a neighbor on his cellphone
across the street
Frankie’s last tears as we
pull away from “home”
The boat pulls away from the bayside dock. Our guide points out the history of Assateague Island’s origins (a 1933 storm broke it off the peninsula) and points out fishing vessels docked at West Ocean City, across the bay. He explains the ponies as we head south in the bay, as well as the perils of mansion-building near marshes. The boat docks on the island. We disembark onto the beach and bathe our feet in the bay water. After many attempts, Frankie catches one small fish using the crabbing net the crew gave all the passengers—right before we embark.
switching seats
Assateague’s grazing ponies
fade from view
The drive north more of his tears as we reenter Delaware
Bethany Beach has a charming downtown that ends at a simple boardwalk. Upscale stores and restaurants cater to a more gentrified crowd. The dunes eclipse the beach and ocean from a boardwalk flanked only with beach condos. More Cape May-esque than Ocean City, and after all the bustle of OC, Bethany is almost too quiet.
Rehoboth—twelve miles north—does not have that problem. A far larger downtown displays gaudier shops and eateries filled with far more people than Bethany. A more Ocean City-looking boardwalk with fewer people, Rehoboth manages to strike a happy medium between OC’s bustle and Bethany’s tranquility. Breaking with sea food again, we have a gyro lunch at a four-star Mediterranean grill before leaving these beach resorts behind.
Scortching heat savoring a taste of gyro in air conditioning
A drive through Wilmington and Dover. The latter, a quaint capital with a picturesque downtown more like Main Street USA than a center of state government. The former bustles with culture, commerce and respectable size as Delaware’s largest city.
empty highway
western sun warming
our way home
Photo by Nan Ingraham
first published on Image Curve, August 9, 2018
for dVerse Poets Pub OLN #225 (pubtended by lillian)
Categories: haikai, haiku community
I love this seasonal visit to the shore… to me there is something magic about the shore, and glad that you managed to find some nice spots in the heat.
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Thanks, Bjorn! It was a fun trip! 😀
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You managed so many snapshots with those words. usually they say it’s the other way round 🙂
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Thank you, Jane! 😀
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🙂
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Oh….many thanks for taking me along on your oceanside trip! Armchair traveling is quite fun — especially here at dVerse! Thanks for posting to OLN today!
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My pleasure, lillian! I’m happy you enjoyed my trip! 😀
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I applaud your reworking of the haibun form; it’s very cool. I like to add tankas, and other stanzas where the linebreaks move all over the page, then add a standard paragraph before the final haiku. I feel for poor Frankie.
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Thanks, Glenn. Some of Basho’s original Haibun were travelogues, and he used a flexible approach writing them. For me, the moments gelled in this structure, so I went with it. Thanks! 😀
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kaykuala
Breaking with sea food again,
we have a gyro lunch at a four-star
Mediterranean grill before leaving
these beach resorts behind.
Being carefree and enjoying the privileges of the beach resorts is such a blessing!
Hank
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Indeed, Hank! Thanks! 😀
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Nice approach to recording one’s travels.
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Thanks, Frank. The haibun originated as travelogue! 😀
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Very inspired, this intermingling of poetry, prose and photographs.
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Thanks, VJ! 😀
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Sounds like a long fun day! Your haikus worked well. Not sure what the tears were about. Perhaps the three horses killed??
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Frank was very attached to places back then. He teared up anytime we left a locale in which we stayed two or more nights. Thanks, Dwight, for your praise of my haiku! 😀
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Nice to see he feels deeply like his father!
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😀
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I absolutely love this! ❤ The way you have reworked the haibun form is nothing short of inspirational 😊
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Thank you, Sanaa! I appreciate your high praise! 😀
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Thanks for taking us with you!
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LOL! Glad to have you along, Mary! Thanks! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing this journey.
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My pleasure, Sara. Thank you for joining me on it, in spirit through reading! 🙂
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