I had the opportunity to attend a workshop at the Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology on Monday. It is a tranquil and inspirational spot to learn, share and create. The Sitka Center is located at Cascade Head on the Oregon Coast. From several places set about in the stunning landscape you can see the ocean. It is surrounded by protected lands that include a nature conservacy preserve, the cascase experimental forest, the salmon river estuary, a united nations biosphere reserve, and the only scenic research area in the world. (http://www.sitkacenter.org/)
My workshop was Writing for Kids: A Sense of Place presented by Kim T. Griswell, a senior editor for Boyds Mills Press and the Highlights Foundation. The eight of us in the class were sent out into the forest to lose ourselves in the senses of the place, and to write about it. The spot I picked was on a carved bench at a high point in the forest where I could see a pie shaped sliver of the ocean in the distance. There was a sculpture in my view that was a six sided wheel with a hole in its center, sitting atop a tall stone pillar.
Sitka Senses
A carved bench
Unforgiving in its hardness
Is worn smooth
By countless poets and bards
The eye of the wheel
Frames a picture beyond
Of the magnificent ocean
Horizon's edge hazy, gone
Tranquility and light
Sets my mind to calm
Warm smells of green forest
Fills my soul with its balm
The breath of the wind
Stroking my face
It's ebb and flow strength
Mirrors ocean waves in space
Sitting atop the world
Enveloped in sounds of trees
Storing memories of this place
That will never leave
