To Sur, With Love
- Michael Kennedy
- 13 minutes ago
- 6 min read
In her simple instructions for living a life, Mary Oliver, American poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award said, "Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."
Jack Kerouac described Big Sur as a place of “raging nature, foggy mornings and dreamy meadowlands.”
Henry Miller called it “the face of the earth as the creator intended it to look.”
Ansel Adams said it was “achingly beautiful.”
All three of these individuals experienced Big Sur. They were immersed and astonished by its beauty, and each of them told us about it in their own words, paintings and photographs.
To me, Big Sur is the jagged edge of heaven.
It's a place to honor.
It's a place of savage beauty and wonderment.
And through the story and photos I'm about to share, I hope they live up to Mary Oliver's instructions.
Joie de vivre
You can smell the wild sea-fragrance long before arriving. And as you approach the ocean, you're greeted by the sound of waves crashing on shore and the wind-sculpted Monterey Cypress Trees found naturally only at Point Lobos and Pebble Beach.
Landscape artist Francis McComas famously described the Monterey/Big Sur coastline as "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world."
Not until you're there in person, however, do you fully appreciate the sentiments of Kerouac, Miller, Adams and McComas.
The Monterey Cypress Trees look like mythological spirits frozen in the act of motion. No tree the same. Each tree a marvel of Gothic-like artistry, radiating a sense of exuberance.
They literally look like living illustrations in a Grimm's Fairy Tale: bark as muscle, roots as limbs, the whole form crouched against the high winds of the Pacific and other unseen natural forces. Foreign, almost alienesque, the Monterey Cypress Trees could have been the inspiration of William Blake's Pre-Romantic paintings. See for yourself!
It's no wonder that for centuries, Middle Eastern and European cultures have revered the cypress as a symbol of the transition between heaven and earth, "uplifting of the human spirit and the possibilities of eternal life."
A walk along the beach and you're instantly absorbed by Big Sur's natural aliveness and supernatural beauty. You can feel the raw power of waves crashing on shore. And before you know it, you're immersed in a world of wonder.
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an Hour."
~ William Blake, from Auguries of Innocence (Songs of Innocence)
At low tide the tide pools appear and in them are small, self-contained microcosms, each holding vibrant life, color, and activity.
Anemones bloom and withdraw.
Sea urchins and starfish anchor themselves to slippery rocks.
Crabs scurry here and there with the rise and ebb of the ocean.
As you slow down and kneel for a better look, you find life of some kind in every crevice and crack.
From these tide pools, it’s easy to understand why John Steinbeck learned to see the world as an interconnectedness of life. Maybe he was drawing from the wisdom of William Blake. Regardless, tide pools teach that lesson. You just have to spend a moment with your curiosity and look for the life.
“It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars
and then back to the tide pool again.” ~ John Steinbeck
And if you turn and hold your eyes steady on the bluffs you're likely to encounter the fastest animal on the planet. Peregrine falcons thrive in Big Sur due to the rugged and steep coastal cliffs which offer safe and secure nesting sites. The high-altitude landscape also makes it ideal for hunting.
MOOD MUSIC / Edge of the Ocean, by Ivy
Dirt paths lead up from sea level to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), officially California State Route 1. The ocean quickly becomes a moving field of emerald greens and deep azures, shifting with the sunlight and fog.
Ocean froth forms off the cliffs of Big Sur reflecting the raw power and patterns of nature’s design. It has a familiar look, like white-capped mountains as seen from an aircraft at 30,000 ft.
Bixby Creek Bridge
Bixby Creek Bridge, (in photo below), is known as the "Gateway to Big Sur." It's design integrates with the sweeping, natural elements of the coastal landscape. But it's much more than an architectural marvel.
What happened under the bridge was, in a sense, the gateway to the beatnik movement as well.
MOOD MUSIC / A Reminiscent Drive - Life Is Beautiful, by WomanElectroSounds
Sea Beatnik Trivia
Jack Kerouac (in photo below) spent time at a friend’s cabin under Bixby Creek Bridge and he composed his experimental “Sea” poem while sitting on the beach directly beneath this bridge. It was later included as a supplement to his novel Big Sur.
In the late 1940s and 50s, Jack Kerouac and other writers and artists, including Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, were the core figures of the Beat Generation, a countercultural literary movement led by Kerouac.
But it was another foundational and controversial writer who lived in Big Sur from 1944 - 1962, whose legacy remains intact today. His name: Henry Miller.
Henry Miller & The Henry Miller Memorial Library
Like Kerouac, it's easy to understand why Miller, more associated with the "Lost Generation," (a term coined by Gertrude Stein about American expatriate writers) came here to get away from the noise of modern life, and recover something raw and unscheduled.
But Big Sur wasn’t an escape for him, it was a life-correction. It's here where Miller wrote Sexus, Plexus, Nexus, and Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.
And in Big Sur you still feel the presence of Henry Miller at the The Henry Miller Memorial Library.
Mood Music / Zoot, by Zoot Sims - Topic
The Henry Miller Library was founded in 1981 by artist and close friend Emil White to honor Miller after his death in 1980. Located in White’s former home, the non-profit library and archive preserves Miller’s literary, artistic, and cultural contributions to the region. But it's much more than a library.
Part bookshop, part arts center, part performance venue, and part roadside retreat, the Henry Miller Library is a tribute to Miller and all the beauty that surrounds it.
Books are on display in, around, and on the cabin - all available for purchase. But most notably, they're also hanging from the branches of a famous persimmon tree on the back deck, each one vacuum-sealed in transparent plastic to protect it from the elements. The unforgettable outdoor browsing experience blends the library's collection with the surrounding nature, making it one of the most inspiring and fascinating "libraries" I've ever enjoyed.
What Big Sur Asks of Us
Big Sur holds all of this at once: the microscopic and the monumental; from mythological trees to the savage beauty of rugged coastline; from tide pools to mountain tops; from the lost generation to the beat generation, and all the artists who follow in their wake for generations to come.
Big Sur uplifts the human spirit and asks for little in return: just to be present and "stand still like the hummingbird," as Henry Miller would say. Stand still long enough for it to work on you.
And it does.
Remember the wisdom of Mary Oliver, "Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."
The love of Big Sur stays with you.
MOOD MUSIC / Sound of the Sea, by Stick Figure
All photographs by Michael Kennedy (unless otherwise noted) / BlueWolfGallery.com
***
I’m Michael Kennedy, a resident of Olympic Valley, CA (in photo above). I’m a writer & photographer and I love exploring nature - especially the nature of Big Sur - and getting lost along the way. We live in a world that demands our attention and I just want to say thank you for your attention. If you enjoyed this post, please share with a friend. For more photos and stories visit BlueWolfGallery.com.