Triumphant Return

Warnie, Boos,


Describing Hawai'i is sort of fruitless. I can do it, but it would take forever. Suffice it to say that Magnum P.I. is exactly correct. Tom Selleck is everywhere. And there are tons of Lamborghini's. And other impossible words to spell.

Actually, that's a lot of the difficulty. Dave Barry supposedly tells the story that when the Tahitians were coming to Hawaii, they brought everything they'd need, including the language. Unfortunately, most of the consonants washed away in a storm.

Here's the Hawaiian name for the Picasso Triggerfish. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. That's the unofficial state fish. My favorite though was the Parrotfish, so called by us white-eyes because it has a very strong beak and big eyes (it uses the beak to snap coral). The Hawaiians call it "uhu" which means "loose bowels". The fish is followed by a cloud.

We actually spent most of our time hiking around in the forests and mountains, or at least more time than at the beach (we did a fair piece of snorkeling as well). That suited me. The Big Island, where we were first, had really cool rock beaches, with tide pools and things like that (two sea turtles swam right up to me and Pockets, swimming through our legs) and the atmosphere was much more like Nag's Head. Maui was very touristy, although with nice beaches.

Anyway, I'm trying to work on some poems related to the idea, but more about traveling in general. They're little tribute poems to the various folks that went with me, and I'm still working them out. But I thought I'd pass on the first one here.

Engineer (for my father-in-law)

The diarist at his journal

is a crayfish in a dark pond

combing the algae for food

with his facile, plated feet.

His mind is an elegant factory

where the day is refined to sentences

and a date—streamlined, sturdy,

and sleek as she needs to be.

It's short, but that's sort of the point. Anyway, I'm hoping to fill out the rest of my understandings with little things like that.

Hmm, it's early. Brain not functioning. Need coffee.

But I'm back, and I'll be posting.

--Jack