In “Away to See,” longtime summer residents Paul and Liz Norwood have collaborated on a book of Vineyard moments and places that everyone here will recognize. “Away to See” is a memento of their “favorite corners and experiences,” distilled into illustrations and verses that capture iconic views of Martha’s Vineyard. On the back cover, the Norwoods invite the reader with an image of a sailboat alongside these verses:
An Invitation
Each facet of the Vineyard
bends and blends
land and sea
culture and climate
history and legend.
Each facet a proposal
to roam
to explore
to dive in.
Each facet a mere drop
in the ocean of this place.
“Away to See” asks the reader to turn pages and pause, browsing the insightful and informal verses and gazing at gorgeous impasto illustrations. This is the Vineyard of summer visitors, but free of ticks and traffic. We don’t get ferry delays or Five Corners in the rain. We do get Jaws Bridge, the Inkwell, Ice House Pond, Menemsha, Lambert’s Cove and Cedar Tree Neck, the Tabernacle, Chappy Ferries, and the Fair. Each of these “facets” captures the place, knowingly, lovingly, invitingly. We get the simple pleasures of “The Simple Life.”
Our small corner of the island
with small rooms, small drawers, spotty wifi
yet a short walk to a glorious pond
a forest of oaks
a friend’s house.
Paul Norwood’s illustration accompanying these lines depicts a casually dressed woman clipping towels to an outdoor clothesline. It is a refreshing view of our island that has seen so much high-income extravagance in recent years. It is a joy to turn these pages and see the beauty of nature and of “living well, but simply” brought to our attention.
Liz Norwood also captures the humor of the place in “Ode to Prepositions.”
Cities and towns are lived in.
Islands, however, are lived on.
So when you’re here,
you’re on Martha’s Vineyard.
And when your toes
are planted firmly in the sand,
you can simply say you’re
on island.
The Norwoods live in Mill Valley, Calif., in the off-season. Paul Norwood is a painter who shows locally in the Eisenhauer Gallery in Edgartown and is currently featured there in a father-daughter exhibition with his daughter, Laina Norwood. Liz Norwood is a freelance editor and professional writer working with Bay Area nonprofits and small businesses. This collaboration, their first book together, is designed to be extended to other locations in the future.
Meanwhile, we have a paean to the “Honor System,” pervasive here:
The unmanned roadside flower stand is a Vineyard staple.
They’re scattered about the island — bouquets of pinks, reds, purples
standing proudly in mason jars next to a small wooden collection box
and a hand-painted sign, Flowers $10.
Paul Norwood’s illustration of Liz’s lines is a sunburst of sunflowers and peonies rising from mason jars, just like the ones we see along up-Island roadways. Another great pairing is “The Antidote.”
The Antidote
the best medicine
the cure for what ails
steep in saltwater
soak in the sun
soothe diffuse dilute
evaporate into the ether
rinse
Repeat
On the facing page, a young towhead luxuriates on an inflated innertube, legs dipping into the ocean, arms extended to paddle, only when necessary. There is no agenda. Only rest. And one might wish that it never comes to an end. That it might go on forever.
Of course, we also have “The Fair,” with teeming throngs of people, colorfully garbed, in the foreground, and a towering ferris wheel just beyond them:
A temporary town risen from the soil
erected in a week, celebrated for four days,
dismantled in even fewer.
As every Vineyarder knows, the Agricultural Fair heralds the final weeks of summer, when those glorious days on Island are coming to a close. Nothing lasts forever, and for the Norwoods.
Pulling up stakes and leaving the Island at summer’s end
is the true mark of a year that’s passed
“Away to See” captures beautifully the flow of summer days and nights and the ebbtide that brings it to an end. It is the perfect book to give to a summer visitor, as a remembrance, or to someone thinking of coming here. These intimate verses and evocative illustrations play together perfectly to create a vivid portrait of what it means to live here in the summer months, and why so many families come here year after year.
“Away to See” is for sale at Edgartown Books and Bunch of Grapes, as well as on Amazon.