Poetry

Autumn’s sneak preview In cloudy skies And chill showers. In layers of browning foliage Trimming redwood branches. Hints of yellow Peeking out on maple leaves. A mob of wild turkeys Blocking the road By golden meadows. In the long evening shadows When late sun breaks through. The aroma of rain And dried grasses. Fall is […]

Every year, an old friend visits, Knocking on the morning door Before the chickens go out. Just for a day, Maybe two. The old rivers of light and heat, Much alive, cry  In their thirst for night, With the promises of fading evenings liquored In the scent of blackberries, Gone stale and forgotten in the […]

Let the waters of the Klamath be released. Let the walls of the four hydroelectric dams be blasted apart, ripped down    to bedrock, concrete and rebar pulverized so only the scars will testify to what once spoiled the river. Let the rains come and wash away the remains— the silt, the pesticides, the cyanobacteria —all […]

How good to rest in mountain light. By tumbling brook and jagged mount. The war torn cities far below Know nothing of a world so right. How good to feel the june-warm sun, The cool caress of mountain breeze, As tired muscles and mind unwind And life’s illusions are undone. How good to watch the […]

To know even in my darkest hours that the condors are flying and the dams are coming down. Donna Wildearth

The trees in my hometown are tall. And old. So old and so tall they attract tourists. Tourists look up. We look down. We know the real action is far below their fancy boots. We understand what’s at work: the far-reaching intricate pattern, ancient roots crisscrossing the darkness somewhere near the water table, anchoring everything […]

Do not go into the wilderness expecting anything. Keep your eyes down, remembering what is wild cannot be easily approached: Ask what you must ask, but ask it slant. Listen to the sound of your breath, the wind, the stream whispering over the cobbles, your heart beating madly in your breast. Just beyond flowers and […]

On the Humboldt coast Under two quilts and my Mariner’s blanket Warm gifts given to me by warm people all of whom live in warmer places than here The entire planet is hotting up A twenty mile drive would find me twenty degrees warmer with sunshiny skies I’m not complaining It only sounds like it […]

The finest cats In the nation Patrol Eureka. Hard, barrel-bodies with Broad, Chicago shoulders, Slice through the Blackberry brambles With New York efficiency. They prepare a meal of mouse, Plated fetchingly, and placed On your doorstep, Not to be outdone by Southern hospitality. Big voice, big action: Their doings dominate Every conversation, And they glory […]

Remember there are lush, green redwood ravines, groves set aside for citizens’ respite and renewal, so ancient that current problems seem a wisp of spider’s web. A league of people preserved this sliver of coastline, wrested woods from those wanting only profits. Because of their persistence, I walk the Hope Trail as the morning fog […]

Today an unexpected gift To come upon a grazing deer She looked at us and stood quite still Likewise did we to keep her there. So gaze I did as she returned To munching on the grass nearby The timing gave me such a lift As it was four years since my mother died. I […]

Turkey buzzard guards this delta from fence post perch to where Salt River runs to meet Eel & both snake as one to sea. Who salted that river with her tears? & why did she weep as her gaze turned to where it ran to join the mouth calling itself home singing itself to the […]