Programmed now to check email before daylight,
I had forgotten how young we used to look
as I open a Kris and Rita birthday wish duet
on Facebook – from a friend I’ve never met,
having just survived my one more night.
Wet spring, forty-two years to the day, I walked
with camera along the creek beside thick trunks
of sycamores and the trapped, high-water pools
reflecting naked limbs, clouds and Canada,
making swaps in my mind.
Those trees, born before Sir Francis Drake
found Nova Albion are gone, clear cut for gravel,
like all the lives since Viet Nam for wars
that couldn’t defeat, contain or destroy ideas.
At 63, I am programmed to write, find binary solace
in lettered synapses chasing chips through cyberspace
for open minds – my quixotic quest into
the friction of science I won’t survive.
Joe Bruce calling from Colorado remembers,
oxygen bottles by his side as he re-rides ‘Old Blue’
on the phone – his new, 17-hand palomino gelding
going back to ‘Man o’ War’ 14 times. He can still
walk out, turn around and get his cows in by himself.
Kris and Rita, you can tell we were all in love
with something within – one another then – long looks,
making music, riding voices high into the wind.
for Richard Blaustein
drycrikjournal 
God almighty, John, you have written some beautiful stuff. Tears me up every time! The e-Journal is a great way to go. Love the photographs, too, and the variety of voices and formats. This is a wonderful service you’re performing, bringing hearts home to the land and the roots of remembrance and regeneration. Keep telling those true stories; we need to hear the news that matters. Thank you!
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Hello John,
You don’t know me I don’t think, but I know Joe Bruce. I lived in Colorado for alot of years and bred and trained horses on my farm in Peyton. It’s hard to be in the horse business and not meet Joe Bruce along the way. I have a saddle and several bridles he sold me about 7 years ago when times were tough for him. I hope he’s doing well. How do you know him? Were you a horseman in Colorado? Really enjoyed your work above.
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Myla, I Met Joe in Elko in the late 80s, back when he was training pretty cowgirls to pick up their feet. A horseman to be sure, we’ve kept in touch over the years. Thanks for checking in.
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When I ‘travel the world’ through cyberspace and find a blog new to me I will click on random things til I find something interesting. This was moving. Well done.
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Goodness. First I read it then I noticed the audio link so I listened. Wonderful.
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Love Kris & Rita – saw them “live” in Fresno, CA at the Saroyan Theater.
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