Joanne Kyger

                                                with husband Jack Boyce, Bolinas (1969)

The Crystal In Tamalpais

In Tamalpais is a big crystal. An acquaintance told 
me the story. A Miwok was giving his grandfather’s medicine 
bag to the Kroeber Museum in Berkeley. He said this man 
took him over the mountain Tamalpais, at a certain time 
in the year. I believe it was about the time of the 
Winter Solstice, because then the tides are really low. 
They stopped and gathered a certain plant on the way over 
the mountain. On their way to the Bolinas Beach clam patch, 
where there is a big rock way out there. 

Go out to 
the rock. Take out of the medicine bag the crystal 
that matches the crystal in Tamalpais. And 
if your heart is not true 
if your heart is not true 
when you tap the rock in the clam patch 
a little piece of it will fly off 
and strike you in the heart 
and strike you dead. 

And that’s the first story I ever heard about Bolinas.