Sunday, May 25, 2014

Cloudless Rain, Tuolumne River


The clouds
I can tell
Do not like crowds
And today I watched
It rain with only
Cotton in the sky
 
I had to duck beneath
An ancient pond’rous pine
And wait it out
With wonderment, for
This strange dream
Was dripping wet

I tell you from experience
That there is more precipitation
In a sunny shower
Here alone
Than in all the hasty bowers
That a man will own

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Snow on Cedar Mountain


There is snow upon the mountains
All the piƱon pines are white
Covered over by the flurries
That passed overhead last night

Just a fragment of a storm cloud
Is left drifting in the sky
Leaving spangled spots of shadow
On the ruddy rocks nearby

This open fragrant landscape
Ever changing always new
Is far older as a token
Of our own red, white and blue

Far away from gilded chambers
In the buildings of the great
I prefer the sage and cedar
To the decorated state