This is my second painting of horses running in the surf. The person who bought the first one asked for a second one with some darker horses. I went back to basics and this painting turned out even better than my white horses. The gold leaf frame is from the Habitat Restore as is the recycled 18 x 20 canvas!
The horses remind me of the wild horses that roam on the outer banks of North Carolina and Virginia.
Running wild and free
Stirring up the the foaming surf
Mole crabs burrow deep
Ocean roared with jagged teeth
Sand dunes devoured by hurricane waves
as the sirens’ song wailed from out of the gale
Hatteras Lighthouse sat in peril
“Lets save the light”
Anything one can envision is possible
On tracks of steel they moved it back
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Click on the link for more on this historic move:
This is Quadrille Monday with De Jackson at d’Verse. The prompt today is to write a Quadrille of exactly 44 words using any form of the word possible! I am writing about the historic move of the Hatteras Lighthouse away from the water’s edge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The photo above was taken years ago when we visited there, before it was moved.
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Photo: Dwight L. Roth
We visited the Hatteras Lighthouse, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, many years ago when the ocean was cutting away at its feet! The beautiful waves lapping the beach, serene in the summer, turns choppy and deadly during the fall hurricane season. At that time, plans were being worked on to save the lighthouse from being washed into the sea. A few years later engineers worked out a way to dig under the lighthouse and set it on rails. From there they moved it slowly, just inches a day, until it was inland far enough away from the eroding shoreline. A new foundation was built under it and it is now open once again for summer visitors.
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Photo: Dwight L. Roth
We will be celebrating the Fourth of July in a couple of days. Hot summer weather seems to call us to the beach. Sun and surf on ninety degree days seem to be the perfect combination. When our boys were little we made many summer trips to Nags Head and Emerald Isle, North Carolina camping and enjoying the waves. Riding the swells on our blow-up mattresses was always a favorite thing to do. I always carried a shovel which we used to build sand creations. Now thy are grown and have children of their own who they take to the beach and do all the fun things all over again.
Good Times at Nag’s Head
Sand and surf God’s natural sandbox
A place where awe and imagination merge
Watching our two boys chase ebb and flow
Squealing with delight as the surf laps their ankles
Amazing creatures evolve out of the sandy beach
With each shovel full of sand they take shape
Octopus, Sea Turtle, Shark and Whale
All come to life at the hand of their creator
Sand Castles with moats and towered walls
Sit on the edge of destruction
Hot Rod with seat and steering wheel
Roars to life in that three year old mind
Riding the swells on a bubble of air
Feeling the power of the ocean breathing beneath
Waiting for just the right wave
Driving into the shallows
Those were good times, no, great times at Nag’s head
Some forty years ago
Now it’s grandchildren and a new creator
Bringing awe and imagination to life
And that three-year old
Still loves God’s ocean playground
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Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Reposted from my book Ebb and Flow
In 1977 I moved to North Carolina and got a job teaching fifth grade in a very rural school system. Our classes were based on achievement test scores, and I had the fifth class of the fifth grade! Needless to say my introduction to NC culture was in overdrive that years. In March we took all the fifth graders to the Outer Banks. We visited the Wright Brothers Memorial, climbed the sand dunes at Kill Devil Hills and stopped for a short time at the public beach. Many of my students had never seen the ocean even though they lived only four hours away. Their hesitation and excitement was a joy to see.
Toes in the Ocean
What must it feel like to see the waves
Watching them ebb and flow for the very first time
The thrill of white foam licking your toes
Disappearing just as fast as it came
Eleven years old and nary a visit
Never seeing this wild wide wonder
But today is the day to stop look with awe
Put your toes in the sand sink into the surf
How wonderful to squeal with delight
Friend in hand you take those first icy cold steps
Together experiencing a lasting impression
Forever indelible in your minds
One of the memorable joys of teaching
Is to see your students experience the ocean
For the very first time in their life
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Photo: Dwight L. Roth
The Bodie Lighthouse towers majestically above the sand dunes near Nags Head, NC. Can you imagine sailing in a time before we had digital navigation? There was a time, not too many years ago, when the lighthouses along the Outer Banks made the difference between life and death for sailors on the dark stormy sea. It is hard to imagine building these structures let alone moving one. It was an amazing time when the Cape Hatteras Light was moved inch by inch from the edge of the dunes to a safe location away from the eroding sea. These wonderful night lights were a beacon of hope shining out across a sea of darkness. This poem is a tribute to them.
Night Light
Towering above dunes gnawed by ocean waves
Stands a monument of engineering
Seeking some souls to save
A beacon of light to prowling ships in the night
Specters of the sea
Those who listen… who shake with fright
Will live to see dry land tonight
Light piercing darkness guides a ship all alone
Flashing danger ore a graveyard
Of lost ship’s bones
A brick and mortar giant of clay
Calls excited children to come and play
Or climb the winding backbone of steel
And dream of one day steering a ship’s wheel
And every night the mirror shines
Reflecting the light within
Through hurricanes, lightning, wind, and rain
Into the black of night again
Children and parents have all gone home
The dark waves pound the shore
Standing strong it’s all alone
Knowing some ships sail no more
Rain and hail beat the window panes
But the light of life never wains
Ships toss on the rolling foam
The colossal stands alone
Bodie Lighthouse – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse – Ocraoke Lighthouse
Roth Poetry 