It was stuffed in an old Tolkien book marking the page of probably one of my favorite poems I ever read (I found the book because I wanted to read the poem to Isaac).
Never was quite sure exactly what that thing was, there were some kids, from a church group or something, setting up a couple of them the day before. Being quite fond of tipis myself, I think I can say it's not much in the way of a tipi, and I don't think they slept in it anyhow.
And I am not sure what or why they put on it that was glimmering so, almost as if a mirror were hung on the east facing side of the thing. I'm sure I would have gone over to take a closer look, but I don't remember what I saw, and this is the only picture I remember ever having of the thing, and the only one from that trip I can find (although I seem to recall another pretty good one, from this trip or another, of the silhouettes of several friends standing with their dune-sleds at the top of a huge dune against an unusually deep blue sky)....
“Sing us yet more of Earendel the wandering, …Who now can tell, and what harp can accompany
Chant us a lay of his white-oared ship, With melodies strange enough, rich enough tunes,
More marvellous-cunning than mortal man's pondering, Pale with the magic of cavernous harmony,
Foamily musical out on the deep. Loud with shore-music of beaches and dunes,
Sing us a tale of immortal sea-yearning How slender his boat; of what glimmering timber;
The Eldar once made ere the change of the light, How her sails were all silvern and taper her mast,
Weaving a winelike spell, and a burning And silver her throat with foam and her limber
Wonder of spray and the odours of night; Flanks as she swanlike floated past!
Of murmurous gloamings out on far oceans;
Of his tossing at anchor off islets forlorn
Chant us a lay of his white-oared ship, With melodies strange enough, rich enough tunes,
More marvellous-cunning than mortal man's pondering, Pale with the magic of cavernous harmony,
Foamily musical out on the deep. Loud with shore-music of beaches and dunes,
Sing us a tale of immortal sea-yearning How slender his boat; of what glimmering timber;
The Eldar once made ere the change of the light, How her sails were all silvern and taper her mast,
Weaving a winelike spell, and a burning And silver her throat with foam and her limber
Wonder of spray and the odours of night; Flanks as she swanlike floated past!
Of murmurous gloamings out on far oceans;
Of his tossing at anchor off islets forlorn
To the unsleeping waves' never-ending sea-motions; The song I can sing is but shreds one remembers
Of bellying sails when a wind was born, Of golden imaginings fashioned in sleep,
And the gurgling bubble of tropical water A whispered tale told by the withering embers
Tinkled from under the ringed stem, Of old things far off that but few hearts keep.”
And thousands of miles was his ship from those wrought her
A petrel, a sea-bird, a white-winged gem,
Gallantly bent on measureless faring
Ere she came homing in sea-laden flight,
Circuitous, lingering, restlessly daring,
Coming to haven unlooked for, at night.
Interesting how the pic was stuck there with this poem.
Of bellying sails when a wind was born, Of golden imaginings fashioned in sleep,
And the gurgling bubble of tropical water A whispered tale told by the withering embers
Tinkled from under the ringed stem, Of old things far off that but few hearts keep.”
And thousands of miles was his ship from those wrought her
A petrel, a sea-bird, a white-winged gem,
Gallantly bent on measureless faring
Ere she came homing in sea-laden flight,
Circuitous, lingering, restlessly daring,
Coming to haven unlooked for, at night.
Interesting how the pic was stuck there with this poem.
I remember this photo, and the other one you talked about of the kids on the dune. great shot, and i forgot how good of a writer you are, and tolkien too.
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