In memory of Ouzel (James Arnold)

A Haiku by Ouzel (James Arnold)

For over seven years (2001-2008), I organized the monthly Big Basin Banana Slug Spotters Survey (BS-cubed).

Poet and naturalist Jim "Ouzel" Arnold joined our team for the November 2007 survey.

He sent me thanks a couple of days later, ending with a commemorative haiku:


Thanks Joan for including me on the Banana count. It is a wonderful hike to the falls with so much to see. I enjoyed the other people and Scott's enthusiasm. Patrick, Barbara and I had good conversation walking out. It will be fun to go again.

But Jim was not able to join us on future hikes. Sadly he died the day after sending this message, and so soon after we had walked together.

A Haiku for Ouzel (James Arnold)
by J. Zimmerman

At the 2008 Asilomar Haiku Retreat (Pausing for Peace), we gathered one late afternoon to celebrate our fallen comrade, haiku poet and naturalist Jim "Ouzel" Arnold, who died last year. We made an altar of stones and shells he had given us. Then we took turns reading his haiku from his A Very Slim Book [designed by artist and poet Susanne Smith] and then we read our own poems in memory of him:

[Thanks for visiting.]