We Spotted the Ocean

At the head of the trail

Hi Sea Dogs!

For the next week, I’m doing something a little different with the newsletter. Instead of new comics, I’m going to be sharing a group of previously published comics on a common theme and talking a bit about how the poems and comics came together.

Today let’s talk about the ocean…

I stare at the sea
it doesn’t want or need me
it never stares back

The ocean is one of my favorite themes. I can’t help but write about it. This haiku is one I’ve published and illustrated several times. The version above is the one found in my latest collection of haiku comics, Wild Divinity. I am still not satisfied with any of my efforts to capture this poem.

This haiku speaks to the reason I go to the ocean so often both physically and in my art. I long for the sense of awe that the ocean never fails to bring.

in between the waves
I glimpse a secret stillness
the sea winks at me

I’m not sure what I meant by this poem. It just showed up, and I wrote it down. This scene is something I’ve often seen when at the beach, a small boat heading up the coast, going to or returning from some errand or fishing trip.

Has the sea ever winked at you?

morning after storm,
a small boat rests on the sand
origin unknown

I really did wake up one morning at the beach after a storm and find a boat on the shore. It was in fact the very boat you see in this comic. I clipped this boat from one of the pictures I took that morning (I was using a Cannon Rebel DSLR). I printed it out in black in white and colored over it with watercolor brush pens.

I’m almost always happier with the way a comic strip looks when I collage in different elements than when I draw everything.

curl, crash, and recede
ocean waves curl, crash, recede
curl, crash, and recede

Sometimes I write experimental haiku. Instead of a story or narrative, I try and communicate a sensation. Here I wanted to convey what it feels like to watch and listen to the endless tide. This is one of my poems that most benefits from being read out loud. When you say the “crash” through your teeth, you can hear the waves hitting the sand and rocks. When bookended with “curl” and “recede”, you have the rhythm of the tide.

my occupation?
a disciple of the sea
pupil of the tide

This haiku came from an interview I did with Amie McGrahm for the micro mashup.

keep it 100: here's jason!

As part of my ten-word bio, I wrote that I was a disciple of the ocean. The phrase stuck with me, and a few days after the interview came out, I wrote this haiku but changed it to disciple of the sea because that worked out better with my syllable count.

melted sun sinking
through the green-gray ocean waves
dark clouds cancel moon

If you have been a subscriber for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I not only love to write and draw the ocean but that I’m also obsessed with ocean sunsets. Often the ocean on Lincoln Beach, the place I most often retreat to, has a lovely green color to it. It looks like the color of the Statue of Liberty or an older steel bridge. I love the color contrast between the orange setting sun and the green water. This comic is one of my many attempts to capture that combination.

ocean waves don’t ask,
”how much farther must I go?”
relentless movement

Another one of my haiku tics is to write self-help poems. These often take the form of advice I need to remember or that I want to impart to my children. This poem is both of those things. I love to complain, but whining doesn’t move my art or my career forward. It’s wasted effort, something the brutally efficient ocean never bothers with.

climbing up the rocks
searching for a better view
the tide rolling in

This haiku was more or less a record of an experience I’ve had many times. My kids and I used to scale the rocks at a place called Fisherman’s Rock State Park and watch the tide come in. If the tide came in too fast for us to get back down to the beach, we could hike out on a trail and walk down a road to the beach house we usually stay at. Now, when I read this poem, I find different meanings.

the ocean’s sermon
filled with fury, given to
a lone congregant

This is one of the last poems I wrote for Wild Divinity—and it is my favorite ocean haiku comic so far. This one speaks to the spiritual power I feel at the ocean and its wabi-sabi nature.

Let me know what you think of these ocean comics. Which one do you like best?

Cheers,

Jason

P.S. Here’s one of my favorite 90s songs, and one that is always on my beach and ocean-themed playlists: