Tag Archives: poetry

OCTOBER

Posted on October 11, 2020 by John | Leave a comment

Nap-time nurseries
beneath the sycamores,
babysitting cows
relieve one another
to eat and drink.

Those without calves
recline with bellies bulging,
thrust painfully skyward
like over-inflated
black beach balls—

all await the green
            soft-stemmed alfalfa—
            await new life,
            await a rain

to settle dust underfoot
as they graze short-cropped
dry feed into the dirt

awaiting new life—
seed awaiting rain.

The long range forecast
confirms our superstitions,
but like a no-hitter
we dare not mention yet—

until the dark hole
in the barn grows larger,
until the canyon fills
with echoing complaints,
the agonizing song
of cows begging,
calf solos in the distance.

NOIR

Posted on October 5, 2020 by John | 3 comments

The mysteries, puzzled
pieces scattered, most missing
and decomposed by the moment

linger, shelved in the back room
for future reference
awaiting adhesive connections

that seldom take shape.
The ranch and its inhabitants,
the wild and tame, the unknowing

hands of man and the malicious,
the well-meaning touch
that turns terribly tragic--all

scattered, stacked one upon the other,
clues that only true detectives
note in the dusty swirl of ambiguity

left to settle with experience--
an illusive sense beyond the tangible
that this old ground evokes.

*       *       *       *
   
Inspired by an article in the latest issue of Will Hearst's 
Alta Magazine: 

https://altaonline.com/private-investigators-san-francisco-phil-bronstein/

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2020, Ranch Journal

Tagged Alta Magazine, Great Blue Heron, Phil Bronstein, poetry, Will Hearst

HARVEST MOON 2020

Posted on October 3, 2020 by John | 2 comments

A perfect moon
for chaos,
I become the face

of an observer,
a skirmish
still raining ash,

but a tick in time—
I yearn for yesterday:
butterflies and squeaky gates

that turn cows
with unnerving ricochets
of change, a trap

to escape as I become
the face
of a smoking moon.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2020, Ranch Journal

Tagged California Fires, Full Harvest Moon, poetry, SQF Complex

REPARATION

Posted on September 23, 2020 by John | 3 comments

Shaking hands with my former self
in these chaotic times
may not be progress. The clock

ticks backwards to dust clouds
and loud hurrahs, to whoops of youth
and muscles flexed to hold

the heroic buck and run
of someone else’s dreams—
a reckless swagger into smaller light.

I could have died several times
and learned nothing—my grip
to meet myself eye-to-eye.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2020

Tagged Covid-19, photography, poetry, politics

HELPLESS

Posted on September 20, 2020 by John | 1 comment

On the other side,
all the current dangers rage
unseen that words cannot

assuage. Isolated here,
hands busy with simple
tasks, we cannot breathe.

On the other side,
an unknown future waits
to reshape us to survive.

Fifty years ago,
I was afraid
I would become proficient—

integrate guilt and hate
into my young soul
to become the best

at squeezing death
before a soldier’s
impromptu grave.

On the other side,
we pray for clarity—
for humble purpose.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2020, Ranch Journal

Tagged Covid-19, Dry Creek, election year, Fire, poetry, politics, Sulphur Peak

TALISMAN

Posted on September 14, 2020 by John | 5 comments

From out of the smoke
raining with ash, white egret
at standing water.

5 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2020, Photographs

Tagged California wildfires, Great Egret, haiku, photography, poetry, SQF Fire Complex

HEIFERS AND HORSES

Posted on September 6, 2020 by John | 6 comments

No social distancing, evening conversation
centers on introductions as sorrel horses
welcome first-calf heifers coming to water:

no politics, no economic woes, just
domesticated souls touching nose-to-nose
before shadows crawl across the canyon.

We are enveloped for prolonged minutes
within their quiet reverie, forgetting
all the bad news they’ll never know.

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2020

Tagged cattle, cows, horses, photography, poetry

For the Birds

Posted on August 18, 2020 by John | 1 comment

A pair of precocious little gray birds I’ve never noticed before have spent the summer with Robbin and me, drinking several times a day at the dog’s water on the deck. Smaller than our Western Flycatcher and with a slight crown like a Kingbird, we assumed they were juveniles. At 111 degrees they water more frequently now, arriving open beaked, the female seems shier and more bedraggled than the male. The best ID I can come up with is that they are Wood Pewees, but I defer to others more qualified.

Besides the livestock water troughs that are difficult for many birds to drink from, our inadvertent plumbing leaks draw a wide variety of birds from all around. Now that the spring Bird Wars are over, a territorial drama where the eggs and babies of one nest feed the babies of a larger species, they seem to have found peace in the shade of our yard. Woodpeckers cling to sprinkler heads to get a drop at a time, coveys of quail include a pipeline leak on their daily rounds and Towhees cool beneath the mist of our garden irrigation. It’s quite a show if you can stand to be outside.