Despite all the bad news,
let’s live life richly,
one petal at a time.
Under split nails and ground into our hides,
we wear our work—we carry it in our lungs
without shame or regret like grazing beasts
of the field, harvesting hillsides, plodding
from water to shade—ever-trusting in change:
the miracle of clouds packing oceans of rain.
Circles with hay, ruts of dust deep in tracks
up mountains and through brittle canyons—
it boils, rising behind us in trailing clouds,
each particle prepared for a new beginning.
We leave the gates open to any water, any
collection seeping from the cracked granite
heart of these hills, our flesh, for a drink.
The unabashed, dusty gazette of soft trails
leading to each distant water trough
prints last night’s news, distributed far
and wide, but much the same—yet we cling
to fuzzy dreams of green without detail.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014, Ranch Journal
Tagged cows, Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, rain, water, weekly-photo-challenge
tears of joy
no USACE dam can
constrict, nor EIR
predict as if
acronyms save breath
and litigation.
The heavens in my mind
will open up
to consume me
like a leaf rising
upon wild waters come
to cleanup the mess.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014
Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, politics, rain, water, weather, weekly-photo-challenge
Down at the County Seat they have believed
big is better, in growth before maintenance
to attain full-employment and prosperity,
hoping for crumbs from corporate plates—
our wide-eyed chiefs hypnotized
by shiny beads and synthetic blankets.
The colonial model has arrived
for one last, lasting extraction from the land
leaving it useless, ripped naked—its precious,
fresh water exposed for fifty years
of the same reasoning and excuses
for following the wrong dream.
Few people learn from their own mistakes,
and fewer yet from the mistakes of others—
but not admitting them is just plain ignorance.
Posted in Poems 2014, Ranch Journal
Tagged Cemex, Drought, poetry, Rock & Gravel Mining, Tulare County, water
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014, Ranch Journal
Tagged American Goldfinch, birds, Drought, Greasy Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, Ragle Springs, water, wildlife
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014
Tagged birds, Butchart Gardens, haiku, photographs, poetry, water, weekly-photo-challenge
By division we speak, out of wonder.
– Wendell Berry (“To Gary Snyder”)
Alone and small within
the Sierra granite, day or night,
I ached for more
than horses and mules
to share the deep
disarming awe at each turn
of the trail, pure snowmelt
reflections of heaven
rippling beneath me,
the infinite blackness,
as I lay down to sleep,
perforated with galaxies
that surrounded me
like lantern light twinkling
off mica-flecked rock.
Perhaps it was that Sabbath
when greenheads rose from the cattails,
drops of water trailing their ascension
and my father’s long pause
to speak beyond religions
that drew me to the wild.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014
Tagged Gary Snyder, photographs, poetry, Wendell Berry, wildlife
You ask me now,
in this moment, waited
for my full attention
which I have refused,
too preoccupied with each rich
moment-at-hand.
My patient other voice,
ever-reasonable and calm,
ready for a pause
to pose the obvious, weigh
the load and look
at the short end of my string.
But I am busy listening
to my call carry across Greasy,
to cows bailing off the far ridge
leaving dust trails in trees,
to the diesel’s purr
beside me, promising hay.
To their slow plod up—
they trust that we
will do as we say.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014, Ranch Journal
Tagged cows, Drought, dust, Greasy Creek, photographs, poetry, water, weather
A little hair here and there
burns across the canyon,
a darkening charred shadow
rising in a wake of even light,
summer days and nights
behind us, behind the ridge
that stands between us
and Antelope Valley, Wuknaw
spilling into the fringed
and frayed urgency beyond.
We have a glass, of course,
discussing cattle—instead of
people—measure likelihoods
for feed and water ready
with another plan, if need be.
Light a cigarette, fill another
glass reflecting decades
of canyons worn upon our faces.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014
Tagged Calves, cows, Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, water, weather, Wuknaw
Naked slopes, steep manzanita red
with rock and leafless oaks, fall
into the slow Kaweah and reach
into the blue from the headstones
of pioneers, terraced family plots
facing west, all looking up
as generations gather, heads bowed.
How many times has Earl sung
to this timeless skyline, how many
of his cattle calls still reverberate
in these canyons? No cowboy song,
he picks “School Days” for her childhood
chums, gray octogenarians recalling
the twinkle beneath jet-black hair.
Simple sendoff with simple words,
everyone of us believing she will be
welcomed “In the Garden”—everyone of us
converted for a good, long moment.
for Barbara Brewer Ainley
Posted in Poems 2014, Ranch Journal
Tagged Kaweah River, poetry, Three Rivers, Three Rivers Cemetery