Monthly Archives: November 2018

Within the gray cloak
of out-of-focus crystal pellets,
rain visits thirsty hills
teasing with a tinge of green.

My homage paid to the wild
design that keeps this earth alive,
miracle above all miracles
verging on Divine.

No fad or fashion worthy
worship more than
a good long drink

from an all night slow rain—
dark murmur on the metal roof
like a thousand distant snare drums

blurred by a billion years
keeps us alive and the earth
hydrated, air clear to breathe

with dreams of green
leaves gently waving
from a mountainside.

No worn path home,
we make circles
following the seasons
in the shadow of the moon—

to the coyote’s yip
and canyon conflagration
finding perfect pitch
to make a chorus.

Our dreams are wild
enough to need
no fuel, no accolades
to draw a crowd

any closer. We pick
our way, break no stems
on the eternal scent
of heading home.

Separated from the bunch,
good to see a cow in clouds
wanting to make rain—

and she glad to see us,
relieved with proof of life
right before her eyes.

We are not so different
when sentenced to isolation
without our cell phones.

After the first cold night,
my eyes leap to drink
the dying colors in—

the last clasp of stubborn
summer’s steamy green
giving up its leaves.

Soothed by the taste
of truth within these
softer shades of fire,

I am relieved
to make my nest
among the wild

and uncivilized—
a calling where instead
I pray for me.

A stirring in the canyon,
golden filaments of grass
parting for a pagan tribe

just before rain, skulking
corners in my brain
the light has seldom seen—

that wild connection
of throwback senses
that once meant something.

Yet I claim totems
and hang fetishes of rock
and bone while waiting.