Why Ocean and Old Trees

A scoundrel marries knowing he will not be faithful. The woman marries him knowing his character. Why? Robinson explores this marriage based on pretense and fear in his poem Eros Turrannos—the woman fears growing old, single and alone; the man desires the stability of a traditional marriage to cloak his unsavory character, “a sense of ocean and old trees envelops and allures him.” The beauty of the old and proven verities of life appeals to the man who desecrates it even as he clings to it. This “sense of ocean and old trees” draws me as well, though I hope, for different reasons. The phrase will find its way over and over into my writing. It is a siren that beckons from things forgotten and archaic. Perhaps the desire to be “enveloped and allured” is at the heart of all our quests. It fuels my passion for seeking out books and dishes and people from long ago. It spurs me to crawl through broken windows of old buildings and brave the hazards of rotten floors just to hear that fleeting whisper of ocean calling from some place and time that is long dead. This blog explores the desire to collect and treasure relics from the past. It is a tribute through writing and images to what is lost. But, remember the words of Edmund Spencer, “There is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.” Join me in the search for Ocean and Old Trees.

Be still. Can you hear it?