Category Archives: Poems 2016

G & T

Posted on July 30, 2016 by | 4 comments

 

No fanfare here, no trumpet’s blare
before day breaks the ridgeline,

no attaboys, no outside noise
to diffuse the summertime,

no accolades but breeze and shade
within short circles lined

with water here and dry feed there,
and a trail of dust behind.

                    Like cattle
                    we plod
                    the heat,

                    mesmerized
                    by the rhythm
                    of our feet

                    leaning
                    towards evening’s
                    G & T.

 

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Posted in Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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THIS WORLD

Posted on July 28, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

October 29, 2015

October 29, 2015

 

There is much to envy
cows content with fate,
grass at their feet, shade,

water, friends close—
no one preaches more
nor promises relief.

They’ve left irrigated
green for dry ground,
tall, brittle stems

fold beneath bellies
growing with calves
for the first time.

Under sycamores,
112° churns,
burns on a breeze

out of the south,
too hot to find
the open gates

to their new home
as mothers nursing
new life, new love,

devotion on the fight.
There is a place they go
if need be: head low,

blood in their eye,
red swirls in brown
pulsing towards crimson.

They will learn
to bellow and bawl,
shake and salivate

and come to the call
of others, like family,
within 45 days, well

before the vote
and victory dances
beyond this world.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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GRACKLE BATH

Posted on July 26, 2016 by | Leave a comment

 

20160724-A40A1368

 

Everyone out early in the heat
before the earth is too hot to touch,
a Grackle shakes the last drops

of a morning bath to preen
and quickly drip-dry upon a rock.
Time essential, we squeeze the work

beneath the angle of a risen sun
that by ten bakes all living things.
Everyone out early when we meet.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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RED-TAIL TALK

Posted on July 25, 2016 by | 7 comments

 

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Sometimes they come to take a look,
glide in low with all their tools
from a bare oak branch to see just who

spoiled the plan to dine on squirrel
straying too far from its earthen burrow—
and perhaps too, to take a moment

to deliver their displeasure, face-to face,
eye-to-eye, to make sure you know
that you screwed up.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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SEA GODDESS

Posted on July 21, 2016 by | 1 comment

 

image

 

An unrelenting beast serene, the sea
laps land into sand–and man’s short trail
of broken glass into translucent jewels–

yet neither heart nor compassion
ride upon her constant undulations
cresting white before they crash

within the foamy broth of time, stirring all
into another fresh instant. It should be
she, when we pray for storms, or for

relief from lustful passion. I do not care
to know her well, embraced inland
at a distance, my words come carefully.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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LOGGING TRUCKS

Posted on July 19, 2016 by | 3 comments

 

Dead cedars, yellow pine
roll off the mountain
on trucks, great rounds felled

after drought
down a narrow road
to be ground

into toothpicks, I’m told.
Under the leaky flume
on the Middle Fork,

a Kenworth edged
the ’57 Ford wagon full
of kids and groceries

to a stop, red bark
dripping, hanging like hair—
we held our breath.

Breaking black silence,
a diesel rumbles upcanyon
at four, piggyback, phallic

trailer tongue angled up,
pointing to Eshom
as headlights pass,

to remove the last
witnesses
to Ghost Dances past.

 

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Posted in Poems 2016

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WOE BE TO INTRUDERS

Posted on July 15, 2016 by | 4 comments

 

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Clinging to a willow branch
above the cattails, singing
across the pond at dawn,

this world is small enough
for herons and mud hens,
a loan goose and bullfrogs—

all the drama necessary
for a rich full life
of trying to get along.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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OSPREY

Posted on July 14, 2016 by | 4 comments

 

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The poles were new
after the Flood of ‘55
serving granddad’s pump

in the river,
serving cross-arms,
serving Osprey

nests of sticks
shorting-out
and burning-up

into a hard rain
of spring, 2010.
Platforms now above

the wires, they watch
from a distance
of distrust.

 

20160709-IMG_2262

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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JULY DAWN

Posted on July 13, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

The barn light
leaks off the metal roof
a golden stream of rain,

black silhouette of hills,
a carcass slumbering
beneath first blue.

Breeze down canyon—
dogs bark,
chatter of raccoons.

 

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Posted in Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

TURKEY VULTURE

Posted on July 12, 2016 by | 4 comments

 

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Busy with cleanup,
little time to say hello
or come much closer.

 

4 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2016, Photographs, Poems 2016

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