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SEASIDE SABBATICAL
 Sandra Ellston (). "The world to-day is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water welling from the earth, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Henry Beston, 1888-1968 By Jeff Petersen Observer Staff Writer American naturalist and writer Henry Beston once built a small house on a dune at the farthest east point of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The house survived until 10 years after his death when a huge Atlantic Ocean winter storm washed it out to sea. Beston's sojourn inspired Sandra Ellston to take a writer's sojourn of her own, only on the Pacific Coast. During her recent sabbatical, Ellston and her husband, Carl, took up a writer's outpost at Seaside, on a spit of sand in the shadow of Tillamook Head. The professor of English and writing at Eastern Oregon University and former dean of the School of Arts and Sciences was on sabbatical from Labor Day through June 20 and during that time began work on a book of poems called "Cosmic Outlaw." A highlight of the sabbatical was a January invitation to be the featured poet at the Celebration of the Spoken Word. The gathering took place at the River Theater, part of Astoria's vigorous arts community. Another highlight was an April reading of a portion of her book at the American Studies Conference in Lincoln City. This summer her work will appear in Hipfish, an Astoria magazine covering entertainment, and The Cascade Reader. Listening to the ocean inspired the poem "Surfsound" coming out in Hipfish. "The sound changes as to whether the tide is going in or coming out," she said. Listening to the tide every day for 30 days and creating a metaphor for that day's sound inspired the poem. Ellston is beginning to be recognized for her work. Her poem, "The Violet Hour," has been named one of the 10 best poems of 2003 by the New Jersey Poetry Association. Judges call her work "rich and evocative" and "satisfying." Not a midlife crisis but time for a change prompted Ellston to turn to creative writing, having already gained notoriety as a Shakespeare scholar and feminist theorist. This background inspires her poetry, which she says is grounded in place, natural phenomena and history. The Seaside area is awash in place. A walk on the beach gives you the ever-present rumbling ocean in the foreground to the Saddle Mountain skyline in the background. As for history, the Seaside area includes Lewis and Clark's salt works only a couple of blocks from Ellston's back door, to Fort Clatsop and the beached whale Sacajawea and company visited just over the mountain at Cannon Beach. "I'm really interested in the effect of a place on the people who live there," Ellston said. Visitors, too, can feel the vibes of history. "What happened in that place long ago remains there today," she said. Lewis and Clark's epic journey inspired some of Ellston's creative energies during the sabbatical. Ellston re-read the Lewis and Clark journals and wrote a series of poems in honor of the 1803-05 expedition's bicentennial. But the sabbatical wasn't all about writing. It was also about exploring natural phenomena with a Canon 35mm. "I just decided I would document our time there with some pictures," Ellston said. "I started taking sunsets, and people began teasing me about them You better get that sunset.' The first batch I got back was so beautiful I just kept going." Now Ellston possesses an entire scrapbook that illustrates the changing moods of Pacific Ocean sunsets. Some are serene, others dark and brooding, still others contrasting light and darkness. All are compelling. The sabbatical was also about observing the current scene on the coast. The biggest surprise for Ellston was that of the row of nice houses on the beach, 88 percent were vacant at any one time. Most are used only for vacations or holidays. Although creative writing is a new direction for Ellston, it ties in well with being a Shakespeare scholar and women's issues scholar, she said. "Shakespeare was the best poet ever," Ellston said, "and for women to speak with authority is necessary and empowering." It's all about, as Henry Beston's sojourn was too, finding her own voice in poetry. Time and Place, Seaside From the shingle where I tithe against the future, Time swirls, netting me in Like the trellis on a sand dollar. For bards waves are poetic time. For me, landscape lives the ghosts: Sacagawea clambering over the Head, Explorers boiling cauldrons for their salt. Excerpt, by Sandra K. Ellston |
