Category Archives: Photographs

                                                        …and yet I shiver twice:
                        Once for thin walls, once for the sound of time.
                                    – William Stafford (“Fall Wind”)

A sharp chain chatters, chewing at the hard heart
of a Blue Oak felled last week—almost limbless,
dead-standing among half-dozen supple saplings.

Respectful reverie, staying warm, this winter art
acquired Solstice after Solstice, I make my marks
along its loose-barked torso, measuring the woodstove

and my strength to load rounds thicker than the bar
is long. Start the backside, then let the Husqvarna’s
high-pitched cry find a steady level—our eerie

undulating whine absorbed among a crowd of thousands,
living trees despite the drought. It spits chips
turning light to dark. Black Heart burns hot and long.

I now know how Egyptians built the pyramids
on 2 x 6 inclines, each round rolled into a flatbed
that packed alfalfa up the mountain—braiding

our black string of cows and calves within old oaks.
I am warm all morning, and yet I shiver twice: once
for this hands-on song, and once for the sound of time.

                                                                                   for Gary

Ritual in Arizona
emailed from Nevada
that brought rain.

I’ve put the call out
to the kids on the coast—
my Christmas list

for a little or a lot
of ocean water
to share in sacred places.

Already, the wind
kicks up. It is the drops
and ceremony that count.

                                          for Meg

Along with the cows and calves, the buck above waits in the brush for hay. Freezing temperatures have burnt the grass back at the higher elevations in the granite, and most everywhere in the clay. Only in the sandier soil along the creek is there any sign of green. Chances of any grass before February are slim to none. Long range forecast dry. We’ve been liquidating cattle to stretch out the hay.

Snow remains below Sulphur Peak after our December 7th storm that brought less than 1/2 inch of moisture to the foothills, marking a week of freezing, or below-freezing temperatures, adding additional stress to our cows. No rain in the forecast as we begin our fifth month of feeding everyday.

Yesterday’s color along Dry Creek is beautiful despite the bare hillsides in the background.