<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once had a first date building a driftwood fort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once sat in a driftwood fort with a meth addict, a siren, watched her drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and scratch scars on her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once thought I would marry inside a driftwood fort constructed by the wedding party. Then we\u2019d burn it down after the ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once had a tarot reading by a naked soothsayer inside a driftwood fort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once built a driftwood fort at the same time an incoming tide simultaneously destroyed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once built a driftwood fort that permanently dissuaded me from committing suicide in the immediate aftermath of personal catastrophe and extinction of self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once led students on a field trip to build driftwood forts. Afterward, I ordered pizza and had it delivered to the forts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once discovered a dildo inside a driftwood fort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once met a man named Danny living in a driftwood fort on Coos Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once built a driftwood fort at midnight drinking champagne near a bonfire with a pair of mesmerizing nurses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once built a driftwood fort in honor of my dead dog and then spread her ashes inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I build driftwood forts using only what exists on the beach. I use only my hands. No tools. Tools clutter the mind. I never steal wood from another fort to create my own. I decorate driftwood forts with kelp, shotgun shells, clam shells, skeletons, feathers, dead crabs, beer cans, bottles, rope, cigarette lighters, kid toys, whatever washes ashore and strikes my fancy. I once wrapped a driftwood fort with the tape of a Paula Abdul cassette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relish the labor of building driftwood forts. Build alone or with someone. My husky helps me build. Erect spars, stanchions. Hoist, maneuver, brace, frame, fasten, interlock crooked wood into shelter, art, studios, secret passages and portals. Turn detritus into delight, flotsam into fun. Add a cairn here and there for mythological measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forage for wood! Fling wood far! Fetch branches, finagle logs. Drag them like dead bodies. Rig a travois for the dog. Fortify an unfortunate life and find the fort within. Freestyle to foist fitness. Forswear fake fiendish foes that finagle frantic fatigue from fragile souls. Fight the fastidious factory factotum fog with a forte of fulminations of facetiousness enabling a mind to forget the cold furnace of furor. Find fortuitous words in the fort lexicon and fly like a falcon, float on forever. Fort fairies will frolic and fort consorts will faun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No driftwood fort is ever completed. None will ever last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to build driftwood forts with Henry David Thoreau, Jack Keroauc, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Julie Newmar in her Catwoman heyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once built a driftwood fort and left behind a waterproof notebook and pen encased inside a freezer bag. I titled this notebook Fort Registry<\/em>. The first page contained these directions: \u201cPlease leave your name and story in enjoying this fort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next few weeks, I checked the registry for comments. Many were written. My favorite: Help me! I\u2019m on the worst date of my life! <\/em>My second favorite: I’m here to see the ocean one last time before I die.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Adults initiate virtually all driftwood forts. Why? They still long to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I build in collaboration with my friends, beavers, Oregon\u2019s official state animal, who feast upon willows and alders in the watersheds and free wood downstream into creeks, rivers, bays, where the wood drifts to the ocean and then comes to rest on a beach, gnarled, chewed, stripped. Clearcuts help furnish the construction materials, too, the absolutely sole beautiful benefit of clearcuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me lead the Oregon legislature in a driftwood fort building session and it would change the trajectory of this state. I always wanted one of my principals to hold a faculty meeting at the beach where teachers would build forts instead of looking at screens, papers, listening to agendas, jargon, nostrums, or participating in preposterous training sessions. My requests were never taken seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all likelihood, I have built the most driftwood forts in Oregon history, quite possibly American history. I’ve written more words on the subject of driftwood forts than any other writer in the history of world literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was once worried my vast accumulation of practical and metaphysical knowledge of building driftwood forts would vanish with my death. Then one day building a fort I felt embarrassed for the hubris: driftwood forts were built long before me and they’ll be built long after me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I once had a first date building a driftwood fort. I once sat in a driftwood fort with a meth addict, a siren, watched her drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and scratch scars on her face. I once thought I would marry inside a driftwood fort constructed by the wedding party. Then we\u2019d burn it down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,5,32,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driftwood-forts","category-meditations","category-oregon-beaches","category-poetry","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9884"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9887,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884\/revisions\/9887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}