May 2013
I remember that day on Mount Tamalpais.
We picnicked under the loving sky
On Bolinas ridge, atop Wicklow hill,
The maiden’s breast. We found those apple trees,
Who’d gone wild and fell into their world.
A blossom on the way.
I took your picture and you developed into
A sea-horse, or was it a mermaid? The ridge
Was foaming about you and birds were swimming
Like fish underneath. We found a tree, an umbrella
Left at the beach. The coral-grass became our bed
And wine turned into water.
A spiral dance in arms of anemone, it was
All embrace! That reef was spawning heaven.
At the treasure chest under the sea maiden,
Like children on highland pap, we played
At the beach that day in a castle above the clouds,
Beneath the wave.
We picnicked under the loving sky
On Bolinas ridge, atop Wicklow hill,
The maiden’s breast. We found those apple trees,
Who’d gone wild and fell into their world.
A blossom on the way.
I took your picture and you developed into
A sea-horse, or was it a mermaid? The ridge
Was foaming about you and birds were swimming
Like fish underneath. We found a tree, an umbrella
Left at the beach. The coral-grass became our bed
And wine turned into water.
A spiral dance in arms of anemone, it was
All embrace! That reef was spawning heaven.
At the treasure chest under the sea maiden,
Like children on highland pap, we played
At the beach that day in a castle above the clouds,
Beneath the wave.
*The name Tamalpais was first recorded in 1845. The meaning of the name is not well-established and there are several versions of the etymology of the name. One version holds that the name comes from ostensibly Coast Miwok words for "coast mountain" (tamal pais). Another holds that it comes from the Spanish Tamal pais, meaning "Tamal country," Tamal being the name that the Spanish missionaries gave to the Coast Miwok peoples. Yet another version holds that the name is the Coast Miwok word for "sleeping maiden" and is taken from a "Legend of the Sleeping Maiden."[13][14][15] However, this legend actually has no basis in Coast Miwok myth and is instead a piece of Victorian-era apocrypha.*
