{"id":19497,"date":"2017-06-17T08:47:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-17T12:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=19497"},"modified":"2017-06-17T08:47:42","modified_gmt":"2017-06-17T12:47:42","slug":"marginalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2017\/06\/17\/marginalia\/","title":{"rendered":"Marginalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up in the North Country and with family well inland in Pennsylvania and Indiana, I was twelve before I ever saw the ocean. I couldn’t get my mind around it. I still can’t, but I find myself drawn there whenever the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n

So I spent the week before this with my wife in southern Maine, along one of our favorites stretches of the land’s margin.<\/p>\n

\"ogunquitpano\"<\/a>

Along The Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine. Photo: Dale Hobson<\/p><\/div>\n

Marginalia
\n<\/strong>
\nShorebirds run back and forth in time
\nwith the surf that gains a few inches
\nwith each pulse of rising tide. Benches
\nalong The Marginal Way are full today —
\nfinally some sun and that unbroken view
\nfrom here clear to the curve of the earth.<\/p>\n

What is near is sweet: sun, wind, rock
\nbreaking water, water breaking rock,
\nplains of marsh grass, bright beach rose
\nand gnarled cedar, your arm around me,
\nthe cries of gulls, the trill of songbirds.
\nBut my eyes seek beyond the breakers.<\/p>\n

The ocean drags at me as the moon
\ndrags at the sea. Just to see is to be
\nimmersed; just to hear to be in synch.
\n“Attention,” Mary Oliver writes,
\n“is the beginning of devotion.” And
\nmy attention is drawn to distances.<\/p>\n

Winding our way back, I drift in
\nand out of our conversation, distracted
\nby the one word the Atlantic booms
\nwithout ceasing. I break upon the edge
\nof understanding it, only to fall away.
\nThe sea, too, finds its limit at the shore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in the North Country and with family well inland in Pennsylvania and Indiana, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6128,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19499,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19497\/revisions\/19499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}