Haven’t wondered about Heaven
since Sunday school’s cold
pearly gates and alabaster walls
seemed drab by comparison,
and the blinding shine of silver
and gold eternities much too bright
even for the pure. Out of dust
and dirt we rise, generations
personified in living colors.
We need not preach poetry
or pray for more than what’s
before us full with awe—
small enough to see through
purple stems of Wild Hyacinth
on green, on gray—I believe.
Top of Sulphur – March 3, 2015
…you’re not the only ones
who don’t get ‘em all
gathered and branded:
mothers friends, born
and raised together
in trees tangled with brush,
running mates escaping
the Horse Lot in Greasy.
You were there when
they bolted at the sight
of more cowboys
than they’d ever seen—
panicked partners on a whim
hell bent through the fence
for the safety of home
will never know the ropes,
our hot iron or knife,
headache of dehorning
for the fifty pounds
of recuperation. Not worth
it now to anyone.
for Virginia McKee
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, Calves, cows, photographs, poetry, ranch economics, reward, slicks, Sulphur Peak, weekly-photo-challenge
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged death, Drought, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, rain, resurrection, weather, weekly-photo-challenge, wildflowers, wildlife
Easter 2013
I made a joke of it:
attending funerals
as the price of survival—
saying goodbye, adios
as their souls ascended
to meet eternity, look
down occasionally
on our plight
of being human
and whisper in our ears.
With no wants,
they must envy
the depth of our passion
and its sensitive
entanglements, our pride
erected and dedicated
for their inspection.
We are never alone.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged death, Dry Creek, funerals, photographs, poetry, rain, rainbow, saying goodbye, water, weather, weekly-photo-challenge
Whitetip Clover (Trifolium variegatum) – March 24, 2013
In the dark I hear the heartbeat
of another world on this planet
the newscasts miss, we overlook
amid conflicting calculations
with new angles on the numbers
to chart a course to reverse them—
eyes spinning within a slot machine.
Light applause on the roof
answers with one more encore
wrenched from early morning’s
black sky, each green blade,
thick as dog hair in these hills
puddled with brightly colored petals
already reaching for first light.
In the dark I hear the heartbeat
of wet ground growing stronger,
inhale its sweet breath
all-around me releasing life.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, grass, photographs, poetry, rain, water, weather, weekly-photo-challenge, Whitetip Clover, wildflowers
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged California, Drought, haiku, Hay, photographs, poetry, rain, weather, weekly-photo-challenge
Goldfields – February 16, 2015
Warm hillsides melting
the Ides of February
in puddles of gold.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged Drought, Goldfields, Greasy Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, weather, weekly-photo-challenge, wildflowers
Of all the necessary evils strung
across the West, mile after mile
glistening either side of every highway,
every rail, keeping cattle in and people
out: lines of wire and sentry posts
standing between a disastrous mix
of urgencies, a clash of cultures:
the timeless calm of open space
invaded and escaped at seventy.
The better ground fenced between
Frost’s good neighbors, cross-hatched
into managed pastures cowmen dream
will optimize the grass, the grazing—
and of course the breeding: a tangled
trail of testosterone enraged to war,
a crash of skulls, two tons of bellowing
bulls colliding in a storm unwinding
borders for as far as they can.
Most cowboys despise fixing fence—
ride around the long step down
to keep the evil stuff up.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Barbed Wire, bulls, cowboys, cowmen, fences, fixing fence, necessary evils, Paregien Ranch, photographs, poetry, testosterone, weekly-photo-challenge
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged birds, corrals, Dry Creek, Egrets, haiku, photographs, poetry, weekly-photo-challenge, wildlife
May 18, 2014
A crop of fat calves
just weaned from relieved mothers
like peas in a pod.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Calves, cows, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, weekly-photo-challenge
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