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NATIVE HARMONIES: ranch porems
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“Best of the Dry Years: 2012-2016”

‘STREAMS OF THOUGHT’ — Spoken Poetry 2013

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‘POEMS FROM DRY CREEK’ — Wrangler Award 2009

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Tag Archives: wildflowers
Mule Ears
Posted in Photographs
Tagged Dry Creek, flower-friday, Mule Ears, wildflowers, Wyethia angustifoli
HEAVENLY
When the angel’s touch
spills with long-stemmed purple blooms,
no room for deceit.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Dry Creek, flower-friday, haiku, Ithuriel's Spear, photographs, poetry, Triteleia laxa, wildflowers
LIKE BUMBLEBEES
We jump into spring
without looking or thinking,
craving wild nectar.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged Dry Creek, haiku, Ithuriel's Spear, photographs, poetry, Triteleia laxa, wildflowers
DAY’S WORK SONG
Steep east slope damp,
tall green grass slick,
pale Pretty Faces hold their grins
beneath Buckeyes and Live Oaks—
heavy thatch of fallen limbs
holds the old fence down,
shelters a rat’s nest.
Nature has been winning
since I was here last
with the chain saw,
packing posts afoot
and splicing rusty wire
to keep cattle straight—
pretending to be in charge.
I see my mark: old cuts
with decomposing rings.
Not near as near
as in my mind—
four years since the low snows,
ten more for this six-inch growth.
Steep east slope damp,
tall green grass slick,
pale Pretty Faces hold their grins
beneath Buckeyes and Live Oaks.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged brushing, Buckeyes, fixing fence, Greasy Creek, Live Oaks, photographs, poetry, Pretty Faces, weather, wildflowers
FEAST IN THE FIDDLENECK
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Crane Fly, haiku, Paregien Ranch, photographs, poetry, weather, wildflowers, wildlife
THAT’S HOME
For most who don’t know, my family purchased the Greasy Creek Ranch from Earl McKee, mentor, surrogate father and good friend for nearly fifty years, where Robbin and I run our cows and calves. Upon seeing the photo of the two bull calves that escaped a simple gather to the corrals for branding, he was moved to write the following poem:
My mind recalls this precious glade
Where these two youngsters lived and played,
And like years ago their ears would hear,
The trumpeting wails of their fathers near.
That trail close by, I long have trod,
On a favorite horse, these hands have shod,
We both know the song that the Robins sing,
And the sounds of the cattle, where the cowbells ring.
Where the blooming Chaparral smells so fair
And the scent of wild flowers fills the air.
Who wouldn’t come back to this peaceful place,
To see Sulphur Mountain’s Majestic face?
I too, wish I could return once more,
To what these two calves, were longing for,
God planned for this place to be left alone,
And like them, I will always say, “That’s Home”.
E. A. M. — 3/13/2015
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, California Golden Poppies, Calves, Earl A. McKee, Greasy Creek, photographs, poetry, Sulphur Peak, wildflowers
LAYERS OF DIRT
This ground recovers our presence
with leaves and weeds, most all
of our mistakes erode with flowers,
explode with colors leaving seed
as accomplishment sags like ridgelines
of old barns and brittle wire between
broken posts as we sink satisfied
into the soil rich with the work
of hands. Calloused hands, hands
a horseback that track our thoughts
when we were green and learning
to see and think the hard way.
As we breathe, all the chiseled chins
of the rough and gruff retreat
to live as monuments in rock piles
with the honesty of rattlesnakes—
an immortality stirred into the earth
that can’t be purchased, but is always
upon always like the layers of dirt
our future depends, rooted within.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Blue Oak, dirt, Dry Creek, earth, grass, immortality, photographs, poetry, rain, weather, wildflowers, wildlife
TIME TO LOVE
Two months from Elko
busy branding calves,
begging for rain and grass,
we listen under an empty
overcast to “A Matter
of Believin’” as if Gail
were here with 100 years
of ranching lessons
in poetry and song.
South slopes all but done,
thin feed gray on clay
showing again,
it’s time to love
this short spring
wrapped in wildflowers
with our old friend
and glass of wine—
the whole show
mostly behind us now,
we indulge ourselves,
embrace the storms
of good fortune
we have worn well—
believing and trusting,
adapting like cattle
to these same hills
just harvesting grass.
Posted in Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged "A Matter of Believin'", cows, Drought, Dry Creek, Gail Steiger, poetry, rain, weather, Wendell Berry, wildflowers
BULLSEYE
Somewhere it’s raining
lavender stars in my dreams
awaiting impact.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Dodecatheon jeffreyi, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, Sierra Shooting Star, wildflowers
TIME CHANGE
Early yet in an early spring,
growing patches, orange-gold,
claim open slopes like flames,
Fiddleneck between gray skeletons
of Blue Oaks pushing bud,
feathery translucent leaves
where the gods walk ridges,
wave hands to paint,
adding color to hillside green
we’ve not seen tall in years.
Out of dust and naked dirt,
new mosaics, lush with moments,
openings for everything put off
in drouth—real work we absorb,
take our sweet time to recognize.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged Blue Oak, Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, real work, time, weather, weekly-photo-challenge, wildflowers











