Category: Florida

Eagle

Early March 2026

Longboat Key, Sarasota

An eagle nest

high in a tree

on the lee side of the island

overlooking Sarasota Bay.

Two eaglets,

nearly grown,

almost ready to fly.

An Audubon lady

watches the chicks,

camera clicking away.

The parents are off feeding.

Soon one eagle returns

to keep watch.

Soon the day will come

when they teach them

to fish.

Such good parents.

.

Eagle —

keep watching.

Your chicks have not flown.

.

An eagle

keeps a sharp eye out,

wary of the world.

.

How is it

that birds get along

and we can’t?

.

Note

The birds I saw are Bald Eagle chicks. Along the bay they usually fledge (take their first flight) around March or early April, so my timing is spot on. After they fly, the parents still bring them fish for a few weeks while they learn to fish for themselves.

Then they are off on their own.

Sea Shells

March 2026

Longboat Key, Sarasota

Mostly six syllable haiku.

A morning walk along the beach on Longboat Key in Sarasota, Florida, a gentle breeze, what it means to be all alone in a city 56,000 people.

Through the portal,

On the Beach

— Nevil Shute

Alice’s Looking Glass

“If I had a world

of my own,

everything

would be nonsense.

Nothing would be

what it is,

because everything

would be what it isn’t.

And contrary wise,

what is,

it wouldn’t be.

And what it wouldn’t be,

it would.

You see?”

Pretty shells.

The shore.

For free

.

If the ocean and the shore had a political theory, would it be Dao Dejing?

More political theory:

Gather, collect, conform.

We are prisoners, confined to the structures we create. Michel Foucault

Broken shelves,

Broken hearts,

Broken dreams.

.

What is a rebel, but a man who says no-Albert Camu. We shall return to this thought

All politics is local, says tip O’Neill. Federalism takes into account, the large in the small, the rural in the urban. This helps to avoid the tyranny of the majority.

The waves,

The foam,

Repeat.

.

In terms of texture, clam shells come in three varieties: spiky, ribbed, and smooth The color is very from white to black my favorite is the silvery iridescent shell that looks like pearl. Because these are so fragile, they are all almost always broken. Does part of their beauty lie in the fact that they uncommon? 

The birds,

Flapping,

Their wings

.

Seagulls,

Sandpiper,

And fools

.

How to describe a sand pepper:

Long beaks,

Long legs,

Small heads

.

Blue ocean,

so vast,

No wind

.

 me,

On the beach,

Alone 

Back through the portal.

“What is a rebel? A man who says no.” Camus

Or a man on the beach with no shoes