Oregon Coast scenic vista featuring dramatic sea stacks rising from the Pacific Ocean, sandy beach with distant figures, and hazy coastal mountains under a clear blue sky.

Edge of the Earth - Oregon's Stark Coastline

Ultramarine Photo is very proud of present Edge of the Earth .. a dramatic tour of Oregon's breathtaking coastline, where rugged sea stacks meet sandy shores.

This collection pairs images by the founder, Eliana Mendez, of peaceful beaches, coastal neighborhoods, and dramatic sunsets, with the stunning poetry of Cody Ross Romero. 

We hope that you enjoy it.

Sweeping Oregon Coast landscape showcasing towering sea stacks dotting the Pacific shoreline, sandy beaches meeting rugged cliffs covered in yellow wildflowers under a bright blue sky.

The First Gift

At the coast periwinkle and lavender light
pushed itself through dense
fog, evergreens jetted up from moss,
dogs bounded through mud and down
the small wooden staircase off the hillside 
leading to the bay.

Dramatic Oregon Coast highway clinging to a steep, grassy cliff overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean with scattered offshore rocks and a clear blue sky.

Remainder

Stay where you are. Right now
a spider has laid its eggs, just so. 
Wind gathering from the north,
blows eastward, rocks the tiny cradle
and the heartbeat breeze sputters
then palpates the cocoon so 
it appears itself as a living thing.

I know how hard to stay does seem,
failing circus, ineffectual shadow
the long cast of time— it is all
we know and more is coming.
The breeze is worth it.
Mountains break, oceans triumph
over our human expectations 
we have to do the work now
of making beds and fixing dinner.
We have to live a life that isn’t 
easy to maintain. But the spider —
and further along in the meadow
where I see the snake and also
the blackbird — will continue being
and so, we must now too. 

Tunnel-like pathway through dense coastal foliage leading towards a bright, sandy beach on the Oregon Coast.

Prayer

In order for this to happen, if it is to take, 
I must imagine grafting time and sense upon your life
like propagating plectranthus verticillatus—swedish ivy–
the way the south is swallowed up 
by kudzu vines and yet continues, bridging ghost 
and instrument. Pack a bag, your passport, leave
for catatonia. It is a solemn state. The guards are lax. 
You have to see the darkened tunnel, 
morning mass, malign the knowing traveler, come here
empty, come with me. I can show you where I drove 
the truck into a wall on Christmas morning or how many
names and hours can be spent beside the lucky baths
where it is said that Thomas came to heal 
his mind, shocked from contact with the hallow void
on Christ’s side, Blessed are those, they say, 
All through the night, they sing, as if to bear 
your wounds to anyone could make them go away. 

Bright Oregon Coast beach scene featuring an older woman with a cane in the foreground, other beachgoers enjoying the sandy shore and Pacific Ocean under a partly cloudy sky.

Resistance

Yesterday before I returned
to the old lines of language
and waited to palm the stones
smooth and ready to throw 
into water I remembered
 the doorway blocked 
by my own stubborn shadow
and constant resistance
to walk back into myself.

Oregon Coast seascape with several fishing boats scattered on the calm Pacific Ocean near a large, rocky sea stack, with hazy coastal mountains in the distance under a clear, bright sky.

Boats

If I add more soil
to the cups that hold
each of four geraniums
bioavailability increases
potential rises like a boat
tied to a crooked dock
wary for low tide.

I water the plants
just so.

Mi vida loca. 
No one wants
what I want. 
Solitude. Splendour.
No wait — everyone
wants that. I want
the world.

Oregon Coast at twilight with a wide, sandy beach stretching into the distance, gentle waves washing ashore, and silhouetted coastal headlands under a clear, darkening sky.

The Everyday

Birds sing up the coast, rain stops
and shuttered doors, boarded windows
gather dust — a little more daily,
when I shake the sheets — become
familiar to silence, distance.
I'm wary again, action-ready.
disoriented by time, its dilations
and sweep. 

I refuse to imagine 
the life I could've had.
It's less  of a life than this.
Weren’t we already lonely?
Huddled together, sometimes
at dusk, before bells chimed
or the skyline parted  lips
and grinned its crooked teeth. 

The ocean splits around me and
plates buckle. I almost
see what I was getting at, 
a little at a time, quiet, 
cavalier by evening.

Scenic Oregon Coast highway winding along a cliffside overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean at dusk, with colorful hues on the horizon and evergreen trees lining the hillside.

Pacific

Did you do a good job today? At getting it
right, at telling it slant? On the coast, someone
imagines a person who left them. 
At the port, I see where our story’s the same. 
How we move toward a future
mired by need and desire, faltering
sometimes, but never afraid.

---

Check out the complete collection of 24 photos, now available for licensing.

Back to blog