amy and i were reminicing the other day about the time that we almost swam to jesse island from departure bay. we were almost there but amy got scared so we aborted and stopped on the biological station's island just before jesse. it was a gross barren place with a dead headless sea lion and circling buzzards. later we found a sign that said DO NOT TRESPASS. that is a golden day in my memory. we were so leisurely in the water. we sang songs and laughed and talked. the beach we left from could barely be seen. we waved at water planes and ferries to be sure that we wouldn't be run over. when we got closer to shore i had amy stand on my shoulders so it looked like it was shallow and wave at the people on the beach. when we came in some people asked us where we came from. i'm sure it looked like we swam in right out of the blue because we had been gone for so long before we got back. amy was also the first one to swim to the lighthouse with me at piper's lagoon. we were only going to swim to the sailboat that was half way out there, but once there we decided we could go the distance. and that's how we became the women of piper's lagoon. (said like the man from snowy river: "that's not a boy, he's a man. the man from snowy river") anyways in my form poetry creative writing class i wrote a tanka poem about it. a tanka is a variation of a haiku. i told amy i'd show it to her but i forgot, so here it is along with another tanka and a not very good sonnet i wrote. actually none of them are that good, i just like them because of the memories they provoke.

sun dappled pacific
glides over browned limbs
of sisters
they swim towards crecent shores
laughing and singing songs



now the sun brightens
the blue mountains a-float
on earth bound clouds

she grins as she walks away
from the last class- last exam


Morning is light through gauzy curtains like
a feathered mist that drifts above the shine
of Buttertubs Marsh at seven thirty. Fine
fingers of warmth curl around me and my bike
and thaws the frost on frozen toes in flight
to meet the day, so like the soaring line
of birds that rise to greet the sun's bright shine,
I fly to face the hopes of heat and heights
of good I can achieve. The dawn is my faith-
belief I held through night, that black is not
the end, and sun will pierce the deepest shade
out on the marshy path today, I race
out of my night. I feel alive and what
a difference the light of day has made.

i was looking for the tanka poem which only exists in my hotmail folder marked school, (and now here), and i came across some letters from my little sisters telling me how much they love me and saying lots of nice kind things about me and i cried. i know mom keeps those kinds of letters in her scriptures and reads them when she needs to, and cries and i felt a little bit like mom today. it was nice to remember that my beloveds love me and they see good in me and they didn't even mention my faults and weaknesses, not one word, although of all people, they must know what they are, and i guess that's a bit like the love heavenly father gives us, and i guess families are a way to feel his love. know what i mean?