Is it not by his high superfluousness we know
Our God?
– Robinson Jeffers (“The Excesses of God”)
A boy goes outside looking for adventure
on new ground, catching disappearing glimpses
of her skirts through the trees, and he is ready
to tame the West where there are no rules—
ready to leave his mark upon the landscape.
After a lifetime, all the hackneyed, black
and whited-hatted heroics sound like the same
song, boom or bust flashes in the pan
that end badly, sadly leaving her abandoned
flesh as landmarks in a state of disgrace.
An old man goes outside looking for other
frontiers to get lost within, to follow wild
details that teem with heart in all things—
hawk and stone, tree and grass—to be assured
of the rainbowed superfluousness of his God.
drycrikjournal 
Great photo, John! Great words too.
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Thanks, Evelyne. 🙂
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Striking picture and interesting story! Thanks John! 🙂
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Thanks, H.J., I hoped you’d enjoy the photo.
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And your amazing world expands and expands, John! Beautiful.
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Lots going on in this poem, Louise. I can’t help but rant obliquely, but also hopefully suggest another way of looking at all the wonderment that surrounds us, that’s at our fingertips. 🙂
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What a great shot. Wow!
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Thanks, Tim, right outside the window. The young Red Tail was protecting his catch from an airborne sibling.
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What a thrill. Not something we suburbanites see. Thank you for sharing it.
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Oh my – beautiful contrasts. The final stanza is wonderful. “…to be assured of the rainbowed superfluousness of his God.”
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Thank you. Jeffers’ poem comes back to haunt me occasionally when things look bleak. The poem ends:
There is the great humaneness at the heart of things,
The extravagant kindness, the fountain
Humanity can understand, and would flow likewise
If power and desire were perch-mates.
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