January Journey to the Sea: Ocean Beach, San Francisco

 

 

 

January Journey to the Sea

 

 

 

 

 

  Low sixties and a mild off-shore breeze

 

 

My New Year Tradition involves going all the way

across the Bay across the City of San Francisco 

to magnificent Ocean Beach

The shock of the water temperature

slaps this baby awake in a new year

 The expansive vista opens the mind

 I missed the ritual bat the last two years

but I was determined to resume

my Winter rite of passage

in Twenty twenty-two

 

 

 

 

 

On My Way

 

 

 

 

Duboce Park

Robert Frank's The Americans 

 includes a photograph take here 

of a couple lying in the grass 

View from MUNI car which has

recently from from downtown subterranea

for a stimulating tour of the real world

 

 

 

 

 

Never seen so much room on the N Judah

Most of the ride it was just myself and a small Chinese lady

with a bouquet half her height & a bag of oranges

She picked up on my enjoyment--

in no hurry and looking all around 

I'm on a holiday after  two years

of feeling rater circumscribed 

 

 

 

 

Stanyan Street and other sorrows

Cole Valley had friends near here so long ago 

Down the street on the left is Kezar Stadium

then it's Golden Gate Park

Across from that lies Haight Street one block up from Ashbury

San Francisco neighborhood of legend

 

 

 

 

On to Irving Street

were old San Francisco can still be found--

Pasquale's Pizzeria Restaurant

Its longevity evident in its vintage sign 

a place called a "Pizzeria Restaurant"

 

 

 

Not terribly far from Golden Gate Park

with all it's wonders

and attractions

 

 

 

St Anne of the Sunset

 

 

The facade of this Romanesque Catholic church

 resembles Wedgewood pottery

 

 

 

Built 1932, parish founded 1904

Would enjoy attending a Mass here

if ever the chance arose 

 

 

 

 

Could you dig a little purple pad

in the Outer Sunset?

 

 

 

Arrival Time

 2:30 pm

 

 

Waves madly crashing

on an otherwise placid day 

 

 

Man and dog

dwarfed by turbulent swells

 

 

 

Down the beach

I find a suitable dune

to make my elevated nest

 

 

 

Adventurers and contemplatives alike

show up to confront the wide ocean

A surfer approaches the surf

 

 

 

An incessant challenge

 Winter waves 

 

 

 Breathtaking from where I perch

 

 

I smoke, have a small lunch

and simply watch awestruck as ever

A lone girl way off to my left

A fellow poet I thought 

until I noticed she spent the whole time 

looking at her device

 

 

 

The lonely surfer

 

 

 

 

Considers his quest

 

 

 

 

He strides to meet the perilous challenge

like a toreador

or an astronaut

 

 

 

 

Some turn and walk down the beach

toward another easier entry point

or perhaps toward another day 

 

 

 

 

An immense cargo ship 

leaves San Francisco Bay 

bound for Nowhereville

(Any place other than San Francisco)

 

 

 

 

From the left: Mount Tamalpais

and the Marin Headlands above

the strait of the olden ate

At center are iconic Seal Rocks

Way on the right is The Cliff House 

dormant at the moment I believe

 

 

 

 

 

Little boy in corduroy

I weary wait upon the shore 

Why do Donovan songs come to mind?

Yes, that's bare feet on Winter's beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time has now come

for me to meet my own barefoot challenge 

It's down to the sea I go

 

 

 

 

To stand in the roiling waves

frigid seawater just down from Alaska 

rushes up to meet me

 

Naturally I'm met by a sneaker wave
my feet a foot deep

 Proof: you can't get this shot

and not get wet

 

 

 I grew up on the Atlantic beaches of New England

so I'm no stranger to cold water in motion

I walk backwards all the way out

 

 

 

 

Good fortune, the frisky wave got within an inch

without actually wetting my pants 

and more importantly it stopped just short

 of where I left my trusty boots on the shore 

 

 

 

 

A fisherman watched the whole incident

with an incredulous eye 

 I've got sea legs, baby

5:00

 

The afternoon is a footprint in sand

 

 

The hero emergent 

returns from the sea

 

 

 

 

Feet no doubt numb by this point

The surfers seem elated and most alive 

 

 

 

I feel transformed myself 

The sun now sinks

it always does

 

 

 

 

 

Westernmost San Francisco

seen from Ocean Beach facing East

One's home is 23 miles in that direction 

 

 

 

I'll fall asleep tonight

to an oceanic roar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterward

 

 

Oakland BART station

 

I got a double eyeful today 

invigorating and epiphanous

Back home by 6:30 to get the penne pasta pot aboil,

 tomato sauce with New Zealand tuna 

gold bell pepper & yellow squash

I watch The Line Up (1958)

  a film noir shot in San Francisco 

featuring

Seal Rocks & vintage Cliff House scenes 

Sutro Baths & Playland at the Beach

Visions of a San Francisco now consigned 

to the Twentieth Century

26 January 2022