Travel Poems from Bar Harbor
10 haiku from a week on the coast
Maine
Long before we see the ocean it welcome us through the salt-brined air.
Hiking Cadillac Mountain
Each little clearing a chapel—soft pine carpet, hermit thrush singing.
Summit Hike
Ascent and descent— opposing muscles tired out in two equal halves.
Psalm 114, Cadillac Mountain
This skipping ram, still beneath scrambling human hands trickles with fresh springs.
Bar Harbor
Compression of shops packed with tourists purchasing imports, logo stamped.
Envy
Vacation—watching hummingbird’s bee balm harvest, I miss my garden.
Afternoon Shower
Song sparrows, here, as at home, sing brightly between preening wet feathers.
Vacation Rental
Every sip sensing the not-my-mugness of this perfectly fine mug.
Mount Desert Narrows
Backs bristling with pines this narrow’s islands are named after porcupines.
Just a brief few words of explanation for this next poem: we stayed in a historic house that is now a rental house in Bar Harbor called the Redwood House, which my cousin-in-law pointed out to us has its own Wikipedia page. It was a beautiful old home/mansion and we very much enjoyed our stay, however like all old homes (I live in one myself, so I’m intimately familiar with this) rodents have found their way in, and the final night we stayed there several mice were very active above my room on the second floor. All this came together to inspire the following poem.
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Redwood House
This historic place known to Wikipedia and the third floor mice.
The Last Afternoon
Low tide—brine in the air, in the shucked oyster.