Wish You Were Here: Listening To Loons In Maine

Writer Roxana Robinson’s most recent novel, Cost, is set in Maine.

Mount Desert Island, off the coast of northern Maine, is known for dramatic scenery. Most of the island is Acadia National Park: steep forests, plunging down to a cobalt sea. Cadillac Mountain, the tallest peak, is the first place where light touches the American continent, each morning at dawn. Trails follow the windswept ridges; they wind along the smooth pink granite bluffs, rising from the deep, icy water, along the wild swirl of the great tides.

I love all this, but I don’t come here for drama. I like more intimate encounters with nature. Our house is on a small saltwater cove, along the sound. The ocean is far away. Tides rise and fall, but our water is flat and glassy. The cove is silent, ringed by white pines, salt grass and bayberry.