Scrambling through loose rocks
On an old trail
All of a summer’s day.
– Gary Snyder (“Milton by Firelight”)
What better place to read
than by firelight, each word
flickering into the next.
Slow progress in the harsh
landscapes of our mind’s
eye, to linger there and read
Snyder aloud to friends
around white coals, shadows
and sound, starlit night.
It happens then, the wind
in pines, off edges of granite,
the bell mare and coyote
interrupting lines,
feeling poetic
just at the right time.
drycrikjournal 