Beach moment

Solitude of seawrack, coral outpcrops — brains, ridges, spines so sharp I feared for my shoes — those long straight strands of kelp that seemed to fence or chain the beach. Moment of many images and feelings overlapping. That organic complexity that is the seed of art, from which its trees and flowers must be patiently coaxed. A painful husbandry, compared to the automatic eruptions of nature. But artists part of nature too and all that grows through them as effortless to the outer world as a daffodil opening. So what did I feel? Excitement, clarity, love, freedom, distance, adventure, sadness, separation, lightness — all as muted as fish through the walls of an aquarium. And what did I see? A thousand beaches, in different countries, different climates. I saw everything on top of everything else, everything plain and pale as sand.