Monthly Archives: February 2015

METAL ROOFS

Posted on February 11, 2015 by John | 11 comments

                        Let me wake in the night
                        and hear it raining
                        and go back to sleep.
                              – Wendell Berry (“Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer”)

The lullaby that soothes my brain,
a metal roof under rain, proof
of gods and goddesses on the job

while I rest completely—let night
take me unafraid anywhere it wants
until the glistening of puddled mornings

blind me with glimpses of paradise
upon this earth, wet and wanting
nothing more from rustic religions.

Every church should acoustically angle
its spires and ridgelines to accentuate
these heaven’s gifts—and to withstand

retribution’s thunderous roar while
renting and gnashing huddle beneath
the storms that flood the rivers muddy.

We are not the architects, nor the nomads
chasing rain from place to place with herds
anymore. We pray instead for basic

sustenance to run upon and off our roofs,
season after season—no two the same—
to wake in the night and hear it raining.

11 Comments

Posted in Poems 2015

Tagged "Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer", Drought, Dry Creek, Mad Farmer, Metal Roofs, poetry, rain, water, weather, Wendell Berry

GOOD LUCK FISHING

Posted on February 10, 2015 by John | 2 comments

                         Don’t pray for the rain to stop.
                         Pray for good luck fishing
                         when the river floods.
                                – Wendell Berry (“Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer”)

And we will fish reflection pools
with Egrets and Great Blue Herons, wade
cloudy skies when the creek subsides

listening to the glorious chorus of tree frogs
croaking symphonies from fresh verdancy—
the canyon clean, all tracks erased

but for the moment to begin again.
What better luck can any god offer
a mad farmer, or mankind?

April 1968: my feet wet with fishing
the great white limbs of sycamores,
naked canopies reflected below me,

recording fresh soliloquies on war
that have not changed but for poetic
editing each time the creek rises—

hope still claims high water marks
beyond the creek bank, despite
clear-cut scars upon this landscape

after a decade’s invasion of machinery
from towns craving to become cities.
We pray yet for good luck fishing.

2 Comments

Posted in Poems 2015

Tagged "Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer", Drought, Dry Creek, Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Mad Farmer, poetry, rain, sycamores, water, weather, Wendell Berry

AFTER RAIN

Posted on February 9, 2015 by John | 12 comments

Sun sets on the sighs
that cling to wet hills grinning
color into clouds.

WPC(3) — “Scale”

12 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, rain, weather, weekly-photo-challenge

OF GODS AND GODDESSES

Posted on February 8, 2015 by John | 3 comments

In her nearly ninety years,
Nora Montgomery couldn’t remember
hillsides as solid with poppies

as the golden spring of 1978
after two years drought,
cows calving in dust.

Slopes alive, fences leaked
lovers and photographers
from all over—

a glorious reward
for enduring a dry nightmare
early in my career,

the foundation
of a young man’s confidence,
the religion he lived by.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015

Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, poppies, rain, weather, wildflowers

Rain

Posted on February 8, 2015 by John | 9 comments

4:00 p.m., February 7, 2015

WPC(2) — “Scale”

9 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dry Creek, photographs, rain, water, weather, weekly-photo-challenge

WAITING TO BLOOM

Posted on February 7, 2015 by John | 6 comments

In the darkness, I listen to a light strum
upon the roof, visualize the size
of raindrops, calculate the hours

necessary to quench the earth’s thirst
for a week or two before going back
to dream of hillsides too wet to climb,

cattle fat come May – nothing I can do,
but hope and pray for some release.
Sucked dry, we still hold on to a chance

for a verdant spring, grass bellyhigh
and sprinkled with wild colors
from all the old seeds waiting to bloom.

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015

Tagged Calves, cows, Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, rain, weather, wildflowers

LONE PINE, CA

Posted on February 7, 2015 by John | 6 comments

This close to heaven,
just below the timberline
pine trees climb and wait.

WPC(1) — “Scale”

6 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015

Tagged haiku, Lone Pine CA, photographs, poetry, weekly-photo-challenge

Ranch Journal: February 6, 2015

Posted on February 6, 2015 by John | 4 comments

The wildflowers were trying to bloom before we left for Elko on January 24th, primarily the ubiquitous Fiddleneck and Shepherd’s Purse, but yesterday as Robbin and I went to the Paregien Ranch, we could add Foothill Poppies, Purple Lupine, White-veined Mallow, Popcorn Flowers, Scorpionweed among others—all 30 days earlier than normal that may indicate an early, and perhaps short, spring, especially with record breaking temperatures in the high-70s the past two days.

As we enter what appears to be our fourth drought year with only 5.47” of rain to date, it could be worse. Last year at this time we had only accumulated 1.6”, a year in which we had to feed hay from August through March with a total rainfall for the season of 7.78”. Our 9-year average, including the last three dry years, is 14.36”.

Fortunately, some rain is predicted for this evening and Saturday that may linger into Sunday. Our south slopes have been stressed for the past three years, showing mostly brown with no cover of old feed to hold moisture or offer protection for the new grasses.

Additionally, there is little snow in the Sierras to supply surface water demands from Valley farmers. Water storage in flood control and irrigation facilities is at an all-time low. Half-way through our rainy season, it’s too late for any snow the Sierras might receive to freeze, thus we have lost any time-released benefits farmers might ordinarily enjoy, leaving us more susceptible to spring floods if the Sierras get any amount of snow for the remainder of the season.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look good.