MidWeek East - Aug 18 2021

NEW TO SCHOOL
Cindy Lam of Kapahulu joins Maryknoll School as chief financial officer. SEE PAGE 2
CLEAN SWEEP
Community members clear trash and litter from the streets of Kaimukī. SEE PAGE 4
A Professor, His Poems And Physics
FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 18, 2021
A PUBLICATION OF
AN EDITION OF
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa physics professor and author, Peter Gorham with his new book of poetry, Water Language. ANTHONY CONSILLIO PHOTO
PBY MARIA KANAI
eter Gorham arrived to Hawai‘i from California in the most epic fashion: he sailed from California on his father’s
44-foot sailboat, Luthien. It took him and two crewmates 16 days, and today, about three de- cades later, he calls it the most challenging and scariest thing he had ever done.
“There’s this point of no return when you’re a day or two out in the sea,” he remembers. “But then, once you hit the trade wind zone, it was just a beautiful trip, seeing the beautiful rain- bows and clouds that we take for granted here in Hawai‘i,” says Gorham.
The trip was one of many experiences that inspired his book Water Language. A collec- tion of 47 poems, Gorham draws inspiration from his personal experiences as a professor and chair of physics at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, studying seascapes and landscapes. He’s spent time in observatories around the world, received awards and medals for his work, was featured in an Oscar-nominated documentary, and received grants from NASA
SEE PAGE 6