Jonathan Pazer

A PASSING THOUGHT

August 4, 2020Leave a comment

Northerly view of the beach north of Pudding Creek, Fort Bragg, CA, looking towards the Lost Coast. “A Passing Thought,” is a pinhole camera image on creased paper inside the camera, captured digitally. Copyright Jonathan Pazer © 2019. All rights Reserved

A PASSING THOUGHT

It was just a passing thought, like a wave….
If you had seen me, you’d have 
seen the smile roll across my face and break over my eyes. 

The ocean longs to cover the shore, to ride up on her, often with tender susurrations and sunsets. 

The sweet, sandy beach luxuriates in this wooing, and arranges her little treasures
to make the ripples of her own reply. 

The winter storms, the occasional squall...
even then, the crashing and pounding is mutual, always 
punctuated by gentle lapping. 

Each grants the other comfort,
offering up what they have,
all the waves and sandbars, sea caves, and tide pools, the things everyone else just sees as the coastline....

These little ordinary, everyday, nothing new here things,
are the gifts that the lovers treasure 
and hold most dear. 



Jonathan Pazer

South Caspar CA - 08/04/19 3:45am - Show with Fort Bragg View North from the stand of trees by the ocean at MacKerricher State Park, South Coastal Trail Access Parking area.

See and purchase my photography and poetry in person at the Mendocino Photographers Gallery, http://www.mcppg.com or by emailing me using the contact page.

AN IMPREFECT MIRROR

August 3, 2020Leave a comment

“An Imperfect Mirror,” Caspar State Beach, and Caspar South Headlands State Park, Mendocino, CA. at dusk. Copyright Jonathan Pazer © 2019 All Rights Reserved.

AN IMPERFECT MIRROR

In the glow of the afternoon's light
When all eyes look to the west 
To the colors of day's end,
I seek the indirect candor and solemnity of reflection.

The long tide has swept far down the beach.
On the shore’s flat and flooded expanse
Scoured smooth by the gentlest waves,
A fading film of sea water struggles to hold 
The sky's dying light, as it seeps into the sand.

A most imperfect mirror, pocked by 
An ocean's detritus: shells, pebbles, bits of trash.
Yet it casts back an elemental vision 
Dodging out the details, and burning in the 
Grandeur of sun, sky and cliffs, 
All painted onto the crushed stone of mountains, 
and the ground-up mollusks that preceded us 
To this beach by an eternity.

Jonathan Pazer
May 10, 2019

================
On plane to England
For my newest picture titled, "An Imperfect Mirror"
An image of Caspar Beach reflected in the sand, with a reverse and overlaid image of the same picture above it.

Copyright Jonathan Pazer ©2020 All Rights Reserved.

See and purchase my photography in person at the Mendocino Photographers Gallery, www.mcppg.com or by emailing me using the contact page.

THIS BIT OF FENCE

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020Tagged Beach, Mendocino, Photograph, PoetryLeave a comment

Flotsam and jetsam washed up on the beach after the storm has passed. Jonathan Pazer (c) 2020. All Rights Reserved. — Flotsam and jetsam after the storm. Frolic Beach, Mendocino, CA.
PHOTO: Jonathan Pazer (c) 2020. All Rights Reserved.


THIS BIT OF FENCE

On the beach, the foam crackles
morning’s calm waves quietly susurrate.

In the long view out to sea
low white-blue clouds
meet blue-white ocean mist
on the horizon of uncertainty.

At my feet, the tide line runs 
ragged, various and definite.

Some of what was cast up from below 
was not drawn back, and it leaves
a jumbled record of the movements of
last night’s extravagant symphony.

I walk this wrinkled seam between
the sandy now, and my remnant yesterdays.

    * * *

A bit of hurricane fence
ends and rough edges rounded
scarred with rust around its girth
recalls the wire that once bound it to purpose.

On what sharp rimmed brink did it stand?
Was it fence or rampart that fell to sea?

The high tide’s subtle encryption 
chronicles more than one night’s raucous squall.
It encodes an entire ocean of memories 
laid out, in a sweet tangle, beckoning....




Jonathan Pazer
Mendocino, CA
April 8, 2020 AC (After Covid-19)

EDIT Apr. 9, 2020 AC,  V.3 

Beginning the second month of our “Stay-At-Home” mandate, due to the Corona virus pandemic.

This poem was written for the pieces of fence ends I picked up last winter after a storm tide.

ALONE AT THE BEACH

March 27, 2020Leave a comment

Frolic Cove, Mendocino, CA.  Jonathan Pazer (C) Copyright. All rights reserved — **Frolic Cove, Mendocino, CA.**
Jonathan Pazer (C) Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

ALONE AT THE BEACH

I am suddenly vulnerable 
Alone at the beach, on a log. 

It’s our secret beach
The one where we found a giant shell
The day we moved here. 

Storm and rain approach, 
The sky is darkened and our footprints 
Are still here from our last visit. 

You could die in this storm
that will wash our companionable meanders away
And pile the flotsam high and rough. 

My foot twitches unconsciously
My innate optimism worn down
My shoes suddenly awash with 
The incoming sea. 

This siege of our secret spot
A canvas of our companionship 
A metaphor of renewal 
And vision of impermanence
Begins with gentle rain and 
The danger-calls of the sea lions
As they abandon the rocks
And swim towards the 
Onrushing storm.

JP
Frolic Cove, Mendocino. CA
03/23/2020

HIDING

March 27, 2020March 28, 2020Leave a comment

Pt. Cabrillo Lighthouse Park, looking north towards Fort Bragg, CA. Jonathan Pazer (c) 2020. All Rights Reserved. — Pt. Cabrillo Lighthouse Park, looking north towards Fort Bragg, CA.
Jonathan Pazer (c) 2020. All Rights Reserved.

HIDING

I woke up
Today would be different.

I tuned into the news.
It was the same, only exponentially worse.

It’s a pandemic, but birds are singing
The whales swim north to their winter hunting grounds.

I have been hiding.
Yelling at the lies, crying at the truth.

I’m all stocked up on bad news.
My pantry is awash in panic and canned spam.

I’ve been hiding from hiding.
It’s past time to give up, I already know too much.

I think today is different after all, 
I embrace the liberty of confinement.

Quarantine is an ‘artist’s residency’ 
in a lovely cottage by the sea.

I have been hiding from freedom.


Jonathan Pazer
Mendocino, CA
Mar. 21, 2020

[In the midst of the Corona Virus Pandemic. After  everyone's retirement account lost 30% of it’s value, and we are all under a “Shelter in Place Order”. For good measure, the prognosis is that this could go on for months.]