This photo was taken in 1995 during an overnight stay with William and Paula Merwin at their place in Haiku. I’m glad to see that one of his dogs made it into the shot. He was totally devoted to them, and they to him.

We met William nearly a decade previously when he sought me out to talk about the history of the movement to stop the use of Kahoolawe as a Navy bombing range.

The four of us hit it off and we enjoyed many evenings with wine and good conversation flowing into the night. We managed to find a number of excuses to get to Maui in those years.

At one point in 1987, at William’s urging, we attempted to buy a property just across the road from them in Haiku. Somehow we thought we would be able to build a small house, then pack up our cats and fly all of us to Maui for extended vacations. It was probably lucky for us that we were unable to make the deal work and instead bought a house in Kaaawa, where we lived for the next 27 years.

Just click on the photo to see a larger version.