Tag Archives: poetry

USDA CHOICE

Posted on April 11, 2016 by | 3 comments

 

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Loose upon this earth
we mark our presence
like dogs at dusk,

blaze trees
and build fence
to claim our place

in time, to sleep
at peace
with the outside world

of Pharisees gone wild.
We fill their bowls
with beef.

 

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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THE GROUND

Posted on April 10, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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We know the ground
as well as we want,
its traps a horseback

o’er its rocky face
we flew with flapping
wings of youth

we gave names to—
plus to the peaceful
we are drawn to

where the cattle
always feel
like gathering.

Seasons of instruction
in the senses, it knows
what the future does not.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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FROM THIS EARTH

Posted on April 9, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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To leave this world in spring,
they have gone on
to grace another space—

hob-nob with the gods
as we remain remembering
to the soothing sound of rain

dark upon our roofs.
Cut-off low out of the south
will linger into a gray

daybreak, and I will absorb
their passing with welcome nods
of understanding

when I turn myself loose
to gaze and search for sign
upon this landscape.

Song and laughter
from this earth,
Vaya con Dios!

                                        for Pat and Merle

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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FISH ROCK

Posted on April 8, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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Sweet water rises here
from forgotten depths—
Sierra snowmelt streaming
granite cracks under pressure,

underground waterways
clogged with huge trout.
A near escape as the earth
cooled to mark the place.

Words leak out, collect
on paper, fill a trough
open to native myths
locked in rock.

                                  for Sylvia

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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AT THE WINDMILL SPRING

Posted on April 7, 2016 by | 6 comments

 

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Out of earth and rock
imagination surfaces,
wants to talk in myths
science will dismiss.

We cannot deny
all senses of the eye,
how it dresses and addresses
what rises before us.

Good water, bedrock mortars—
fish flickering by firelight,
generations of good sense
secured in granite.

                        ~

Weather Update

 

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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PRETTY FACES

Posted on April 5, 2016 by | 1 comment

 

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Over the ridge, friendly families
claim the hillside, pale homesteads
amid a sweep of shadowed green

beg for me to look, first to welcome
me back home, back off the road
two thousand feet below.

Here, now can last a long time—no need
to remember names when everyone
looks the same, ready for a party.

 

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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THE WATER AND THE WEEDS

Posted on April 4, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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Life dries up and the dark earth cracks,
crumbles back into its open mouth,
stifling a dusty gasp. Already, I have

forgotten focus, how exactly each detail
hung on the moment, on my half-delirious
plodding one-day-at-a-time for years—

photographs no one wants to share.
But when life rains from the sky,
germinates and steams with spring,

I become an April fool inhaling
as much as I can, storing the miracle
in my veins until I become it,

ultimately. No alabaster walls for me,
no perfect city. Let me laze among
my gods: the water and the weeds.

 

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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PURPLE FAIRY LANTERN

Posted on April 3, 2016 by | 8 comments

 

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Within the silent clash of blades,
shy scarlet globes within green stems
hide with their heads bowed

if you know where they live.
In the thatch of another world,
snallygaster crane flies become

fairies within the grass forest
we part to share the light
of twenty-one springs together

in these hills with generations
of cattle, with all the wild gods
and goddesses as our witnesses.

 

8 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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MANYFLOWERED MONKEYFLOWER

Posted on April 1, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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Thriving in the cracks of granite,
small towns with no strangers
overlooked by bigger appetites

for glory, mountainsides of color.
Carefree young, I rest more often now
resisting time, give-in to gravity

to see my shrinking world up-close:
sagas of intricate adaptations
singing softly to the sun.

 

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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SIERRA SHOOTING STAR

Posted on March 30, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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I let my hand run
upon paper with pencil,
let lines loose to find the grace

etched upon the walls of my mind,
imitate the random arcs
balanced against the tension

of gravity and time
lest I forget a world without
my awkward plodding.

In the foreground: slate gray grass
connects to tall stems bent
with petals across the page.

 

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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