Janice Doppler

Currents

Campobello Island, New Brunswick

Some say this cove—created 14,000 years ago by glaciers on volcanic basalt—never changes. Yet, it is different each time I visit. I inhale salt air, exhale tension, and head south on the ribbon of beach exposed by the falling tide.

rolling sea
the rise and fall
of driftwood

The hard-packed sand shows varied browns and beiges with a few areas of red and one of purple. I begin to notice flat sedimentary and egg-shaped igneous pebbles interspersed with bits of seaweed. The stones increase in size and quantity as I walk. Most are one-colored—black, red, pink, orange, green, or white. There are a few pieces of fool’s gold. I savor the sparkle when sunlight hits still-damp stones just right.

new herring weir—
the tremolo call
of a loon

Now and then, I pick up a speckled stone or one with a line of white quartz embedded in gray granite. I toss most into the sea after close inspection and slip a few into my pocket even though they are still damp. Near the end of the cove, fist-sized cobbles are piled so deeply that they shift underfoot. I clamber to a sun-warmed glacial erratic and sit.

pondering . . .
a mother and child
hand in hand

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About the Author

Janice Doppler lives at the edge of a forest in Massachusetts in the USA. Her haiku and haibun have been published in frogpond, bottle rockets, The Haibun Journal, Cattails, and Drifting Sands. A retired school teacher and administrator, she enjoys tai chi, bird watching, and bird carving.