Thursday, October 22, 2015

Thunder Hole in Acadia National Park (New England Road Trip #3)




"Thunder Hole"
by Virginia Knowles

we came to scatter her ashes
in the ocean at Acadia 
hundreds of miles from home
searching for such
beauty and majesty
as would well honor
a mother's memory

in the autumn
season of her birth
we journeyed together
to Thunder Hole where
high tide surges and crashes
into a cleft in the boulders
with a resonating boom and
a spurt of sea water 
into the sky

in the solitude of dawn
we climbed carefully down
a quieter cluster of boulders 
amid the gentle tide pools
and toward the sun 
shimmering on the horizon

then singing and speaking
words of comfort and honor
we released her ashes
toward the foaming waves
which danced across
the rocky shore to greet us

a breeze rose up swift and
a lacy gray veil of ashes
fluttered in the sky
then drifted down to the sea
to travel wherever
the currents will take them

ashes to ashes 
dust to dust 
we mourn the years 
without her yet
I know her spirit is
sheltered in the cleft
of the Rock of Ages
along the celestial ocean
of Beauty and Majesty
and Love
















Our parents loved to travel and took the three of us children all over the United States, several national parks, and even a few other countries. Traveling to a Acadia National Park in Maine seemed a fitting tribute to my mother's spirit of adventure. My sister planned this 2015 trip for us; we were joined by one of my daughters and one of hers. You can read more about our New England travels here:

I will try to post soon about the rest of Acadia National Park, as well as the National Gallery of Art in DC.

My mother, Mary Quarrier, passed away in July 2013 from complications of spinal surgery. You can read more about her here:


Mom and I on a big rock
when I was a teenager
a family trip to Crater Lake
in Oregon in the 1970's

Mom in 2013

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails