Tag Archives: poetry

FIREKEEPER

Posted on December 3, 2014 by John | Leave a comment

She knows her wood
and how long it will last—
loves Blue Oak coals
and the Live Oak with little ash.

Redwood splinters for an ember,
Manzanita for heat and flame,
she keeps a never-ending fire
three months warm each year.

LIKE IT

Posted on December 2, 2014 by John | 2 comments

Black, no stars—a mist before the storm
stacks-up against the Sierra Nevadas—
rises and rains just in time for grass
struggling with hard, thirsty clay.

We, too, have grown hard
with no deep moisture, roots dry
and brittle as the Live Oaks offering
boughs full of brown medallions.

The problem bears have moved
to town, followed the Kaweah
down into backyards and alleys,
packs of hungry coyotes behind them.

Slow and gentle would be best
for the red, south and west slopes,
any kind of puddles for the flats—
but whatever we get, we’ll like it ☺

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014, Ranch Journal

Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, Kaweah, photographs, poetry, rain, Sierra Nevadas, water, weather, wildlife, Wood Ducks

SAPSUCKER

Posted on November 30, 2014 by John | 1 comment

Coffee at dawn, drumming
the Honey Locust—
old men talk, listening.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014, Ranch Journal

Tagged birds, Dry Creek, garden, haiku, photographs, poetry, Red-Breasted Sapsucker, wildlife

DRIVING CATTLE

Posted on November 29, 2014 by John | 3 comments

A convergence of wills,
young mothers to be,
moving to new country.

WPC — “Converge” —

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged cows, driving cattle, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, weekly-photo-challenge

THANKSGIVING 2014

Posted on November 28, 2014 by John | 1 comment

December 8, 2010

The green struggles in the clay.
Sycamores stand half-dressed
beside an empty bed exposing
white limbs as the sun sets.
The shadow of the ridge behind us
becomes a long, dark stage
for a chorus line of dancing girls,
arms entwined, kicking high
at the gate as we leave home
for a fire upstream—turkey
trimmed with camaraderie.
No traffic on the road to see
these celebrations along the creek
as the canyon waits for rain.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dry Creek, Dry Creek Road, photographs, poetry, rain, sycamores, water, weather

WHEN WORDS ARE DONE

Posted on November 26, 2014 by John | 8 comments

                                                                                     the world
                                                  lives in the death of speech
                                                  and sings there.
                                                       – Wendell Berry (“The Silence”)

We name landmarks on maps in our minds
so we can go there. Some to detail feeling
with art reaching-out to all humanity
searching for that common hearthstone

beyond man’s hackneyed adjectives
and political objectives. We press names
into place with indelible ink hoping
to get lost in the map’s open space

to touch the unnamable and soar
with the song. Those elusive, musical
fragments, those glimpses in trees, but
all we have when words are done.