Category Archives: Photographs

ECHINOPSIS AT DAWN

Posted on January 11, 2015 by | 7 comments

 

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Not a shadow without light,
brief morning flowers
from the blackest night.

 

 

WPC(2) — “Shadowed”

 

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Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015

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GLOAMING

Posted on January 10, 2015 by | 16 comments

 

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Lifting our eyes to Sulphur Peak,
long days hurry
into poetry.

 

 

WPC(1) — “Shadowed”

 

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Pretty Face (Golden Brodiaea) Triteleia ixioides

Posted on January 9, 2015 by | 2 comments

 

May 2, 2012

May 2, 2012

 

Arms open—
none happier in May
to flower, fold and fade away.

 

 

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PILLOWED CLOUDS

Posted on January 8, 2015 by | 8 comments

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I used to think that inside the deep heart
of the world gone wild, that we all wanted,
craved, needed, or would acquiesce to,

                         a yet to be identified
                         common soul:
                         a ‘peace and love’ tranquility
                         where we all got along
                         with our dreams—

a musical, moaning chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’
that kept us busy feeling fine as frog hair,
trying harder to make life better for everyone.

But how could heaven’s everlasting light
be so great without a dark side, without the moon
rising in new places dressed in different phases
behind the skeletons of oak and tops of pine?

                         Rain and storm for free.
                         Life from dust, the miracle
                         of green reaching up
                         to seed itself
                         against adversity

should be enough to brave the skullduggery
of all the power-hungry opportunists that slink
and lurk in the shadows. And what of poetry
rooted in the illusion of pillowed clouds?

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015

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Wordless Wednesday — Grass-Starved

Posted on January 7, 2015 by | 2 comments

 

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Gallery

Branding: Belle Point & Flat — 12 photos

Posted on January 3, 2015 by

This gallery contains 12 photos.

We left the point and shoot on the table during the branding, perspectives from several photographers. First branding

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COLD MORNING

Posted on January 1, 2015 by | 2 comments

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I find my friend hunting
on my way to cut wood
for a branding fire.

 

 

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CEREMONY

Posted on December 28, 2014 by | 8 comments

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Blue Oak rounds too big for the woodstove
collect near the splitter in a pile—energy
stored in rings of sun, years of rain—
the severed dead, hard and dry inside.

We look ahead to ceremony, prepare
as we go, set aside the burls and forks,
too twisted to split, for the outside fire
and generations of flickering faces.

I see my mother in my grand-daughter’s
eyes, leave us for a moment for the flames
lapping the remains of a stump—the call
from beyond that burns within us all—

she is drawn away. It is the coming back
to her mother’s lap, her bemused recognition
of going somewhere within white coals
beyond this half-circle of family

that I see my mother in her face
while the meat cooks. We talk, lift glasses
in the smoke that swirls undecidedly
around us, just out of reach of the flames.

Early tracks upon the morning frost,
someone will rise to stir the embers,
to rekindle conversation from cold night
hoping to keep the celebration alive.

 

 

WPC(2) — “Warmth”

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

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Christmas Fire

Posted on December 27, 2014 by | Leave a comment

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WPC(1) — “Warmth”

 

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Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2014 by | 4 comments

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We are blessed this Christmas with the gift of grass after thirty-plus months of historic drought in California, with extraordinary conditions beginning with a 1.76” warm, slow rain at the first of November followed by a thick germination of feed and warm growing weather, and just enough rain to keep it alive until the 2.5” storm two weeks ago. We have good feed now and the calves are growing quickly—from one extreme to the other, a magnificent start to our grass season. Still getting comfortable with the color green, with wet weather, we are grateful and relieved. These hills are miraculously resilient!

And we truly appreciate you and the 400+ others who have followed this blog and endured the drought with us—the recent dusty poems and photographs that are recorded here—and took the time to leave encouraging and sympathetic comments. Thank you all.

Robbin and I wish you a Merry Christmas as the year unwinds, hoping for peace and understanding among all men as we begin 2015, another opportunity to find that common strand within each of us to share. From our family to yours: MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR ☺

 

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