The Beginning of September by: Robert Haas

"Here are some things to pray to in
San Francisco: the bay, the mountain, the goddess of the city;

remembering, forgetting, sudden
pleasure, loss; sunrise and sunset; salt; the tutelary gods of

Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Basque,
French, Italian and Mexican cooking; the solitude of coffee houses and museums;
the virgin, mother and widow moons; hilliness, vistas; John McLaren; Saint
Francis; the Mother of Sorrows; the rhythm of any life still whole through
three generations; wine, especially zinfandel because from that Hungarian
vine-slip came first a native wine not resinous and sugar-heavy; the sourdough
mother, true yeast and beginning; all fish and fisherman at the turning of the
tide; the turning of the tide; eelgrass, oldest inhabitant; fog; seagulls;
Joseph Worcester; plum blossoms; warm days in January . . . "