.
Mānana (Rabbit Island), a small islet located off the eastern
windward shore of the island of Oahu, between Makapuu Point and
Waimanalo: photo by Vernon Brown, 25 April 2009
That’s where I used to live.
Close to Rabbit Island. That’s where
I used to sleep. Under that ironwood
at the end of that beach access—
Hihimanu Street. All the old naupaka
gone now where cubbyholes existed—
dry, windless places—just one or two
where I’d find him crashed, reeking,
needing to hold onto me like a man
in the whole bunch of trouble that he was.
Mānana (Rabbit Island), Oahu: photographer unknown, original 1950s Kodachrome transparency; image by ElectroSpark, 4 March 2012
The island of Mānana, or Rabbit Island, with the smaller island of of Kaohikaipu in front of it (to the right in the photo): photo by Daniel Ramirez, 30 August 2008
Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat). Kanaha Beach, Maui: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 9 February 2001 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat over ocean). Growing on rocky volcanic soil, Pauwalu Point, Maui: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 12 October (from Plants of Hawaii)
Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (fruits). Kihei, Maui: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 9 March 2001 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Tournefortia argentea (Tree Heliotrope) (habitat). Growing amid volcanic tuff. With view of Mānana, or Rabbit Island, beyond. Kaohikaipu, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 24 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis (Pohuehe/Beach Morning Glory) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Pluchea indica (Indian Fleabane) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel Grass) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel Grass) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Euphorbia hirta (Hairy Spurge) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Argemone glauca (Pua Kala) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel Grass) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)
Makapuʻu Point, Oahu, with Mānana (Rabbit Island) beyond: photo by Lukas, 17 September 2008
Mānana Islet, off the coast of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i, here seen from the end of the Makai Pier: photo by Eric Guinther, 18 July 2005
Rabbit Island (Mānana), Oahu, Hawaii: photo by Peleg, September 2003
Waimanalo Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii: photo by Joel Metlen, 6 May 2012
Waimanalo Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii: photo by Sarah Gaston, 12 May 2012
I think your collaborations with Susan, and especially this one, which is so unexpected, are very fine. Curtis
ReplyDeletelove the photos...beautiful poem!!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Curtis, I've always respected your eye
ReplyDeleteanyway, and now more than ever...
(The blogging has become the last ditch keep-one's mind-off-it-all concentration enterprise at a time when the gaping hole in the head from the infamous auto hit has linked up with the dolorous injury last month to the innocent genius of the house, who has two broken toes and numerous torn ligaments, and so... well...)
But in any case and notwithstanding such tiresome notices, these collaborations owe all their spark (of course) to the redoubtable SKA, so due props are in order, without further ado.
By the by, for those who don't already have it bookmarked, Susan keeps a blog, albeit with total unheard-of-among-poets-and-bloggers reticence and modesty (yay!! modesty), here.
Her Rabbit Island poem arrived in response to, and perhaps makes a certain extra sensitive sort of sense (by extending an eternal in-the-dark dialogue) in relation to this rainy night fire in an iron barrel ballad from the adjacent rim of the mainland.
What these divers informations may add up to mean is that all detectives always have their eye on all detectives all the time. Little wonder some of the old ones never sleep.
Otherwise, FYI:
"Mānana Island is an uninhabited islet located 0.75 mi (1.21 km) off Kaupō Beach, near Makapuʻu at the eastern end of the Island of Oʻahu in the Hawaiian Islands. In the Hawaiian language, mānana means "buoyant". The islet is commonly referred to as Rabbit Island, because its shape as seen from the nearby Oʻahu shore looks something like a rabbit's head and because it was once inhabited by introduced rabbits. The rabbit colony was established by John Adams Cummins in the 1880s when he ran the nearby Waimānalo plantation.The rabbits were eradicated about a hundred years later because they were destroying the native ecosystem, an important seabird breeding area.
"Mānana is a tuff cone with two vents or craters. The highest point on the islet rises to 361 ft (110 m). The island is 2,319 ft (707 m) long and 2,147 ft (654 m) wide and has an area of about 63 acres (25 ha). Mānana’s only sand beach is a small storm beach on the west to south-west (leeward) side of the islet. This sand deposit, located above the reach of the normal waves, is about 30 ft (9.1 m) wide and curves around to the western side of the island.
"Mānana is a State Seabird Sanctuary—home to over 10,000 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, 80,000 Sooty Terns, 20,000 Brown Noddys, 5-10 Bulwer's Petrels, and 10-15 Red-tailed Tropicbirds, and numerous Hawaiian Monk Seals. It is illegal to land on the islet without permission from the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources."
Sandra,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
In making this post, some of the images have reminded me of a lovely book of poems I am reading right now: Lluvia, by Sandra San Martin.
después de tan largo tiempo
el océano despierta
after a a long long time
the big blue ocean wakes up
Tom,
ReplyDeleteRabbits on Rabbit Island, Susan's "where I used to live" way out there across all that blue water, those winds, those "dry, windless places," these wonderful photos,
ahhh. . .
7.31
light coming into sky above black plane
of ridge, silver of planet above branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel
is the same as to pass away,
succession of present
in which part, is therefore
sometimes, other hand
grey white fog against invisible ridge,
pelican flapping across toward horizon
Steve,
ReplyDeleteRabbit Island made me think a bit of a kinder, gentler, greener, milder, more-happy-tiki-bunny simulation of the swirling-wind-and-wave-swept dragon's tail of rock (in aerial view) that is The Farallons.
One supposes the sea birds know both places by names we shall never know.
you are welcome Tom....:)
ReplyDeleteI love that we begin with Susan showing us around memory's territory and end with those three lines and "the whole bunch of trouble". You hardly notice the shift and you're there with the reek of him.
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful shots of Rabbit Island (Manana)and of Waimanalo Beach--a sacred place. Shown here, I long for it in anguish until I am there worried about my burn, beating traffic, and putting off those thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThis is a place
ReplyDeletewhere Sandra Krawciw
Kailua poet
walks with me
to the rock pile
and back again
before coffee
and poems
sublime scenery
and feet scrubbed
by soupy coral sand.
Always she loves
Sherwoods
the ironwood grove
solid against
the breezes
coming in
wishes brush
those dunes.
This is where I swim with Tom and Angelica.
ReplyDelete"Beautiful shots" to go with a killer poem.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteRabbit Island meets The Farallons -- nice.