The Ocean in Seventeen Syllables

This week, in Literature of California, we have begun reading John Steinbeck's literary classic, Cannery Row. Set in Monterey during the great depression, Cannery Row is as much about the ocean as it is about the people that reside on Steinbeck's fictional street. You cannot talk about California, it seems, without mentioning the ocean. With over 1,100 miles of coastline, California is literally defined by the sea.

For this week's blog post, I want students to take a creative approach to their relationship with California's beaches. Please write a haiku (your standard 5/7/5 approach) that you feel captures your relationship to California's coastline. Once you write your haiku, choose an image to go along with it and then write a short paragraph explaining the meaning of your haiku.

Here's mine:

the smell hits you first

PCH, my windows down

the heart swells, i breathe

While I've been visiting the beaches of California my whole life, I never truly lived "at the beach" until I started working for Sage Hill over a decade ago and immediately moved to Belmont Shore, directly across the street from the ocean. Every day, when I would come home from work, no matter what sort of day I had, I would be struck by the smell of the beach whenever I opened my car door. In that moment, my shoulders would relax, my worries would lift a little, and I would simply breathe. The smell of the beach is a sensory connection to my past; some of my happiest memories take place in and around the ocean, so each time I opened that car door or lowered my windows, I was transported back to a time of fun and relaxation. This is my California beach experience.