a shantyboat community by the river's edge.
After building their "shantyboat," out of mostly salvaged materials,
Harlan and Anna set out on the river,
drifting.
I had no theories to prove.
I merely wanted to try living by my own hands,
independent as far as possible from a system of division of labor
in which the participant loses most of the pleasure
of making and growing things for himself.
I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smoke
as it burned on the hearth I had made.
I wanted to grow my own food,
catch it in the river, or forage after it.
In short, I wanted to do as much as I could for myself,
because I had already realized from partial experience
the inexpressible joy of so doing.
This is a windy day with a secret exhilaration about it.
When I look at the rough water patched with cloud shadows,
the boat pitching slightly in the wind waves -
all this from a higher plane somewhere above these little affairs.
Yet they are a part and lead into it.
The pure delight of drifting.
Each time, it was a thrill to shove out into the current,
to feel the life and power of the river,
whose beginning and end were so remote.
We became a part of it, like the driftwood...
The tension and excitement, the near ecstasy of drifting.
We had to stop often and take it in small doses.
~ Harlan Hubbard
from Harlan Hubbard and the River - A Visionary Life
by Don Wallis
block prints by Harlan Hubbard
