Seasonal Wind

A fiercely tasked wind
sweeps through the
mosaic of colour that
has become the autumn
forest, scattering foliage
from trees to an already
heavily confettied forest
floor. This is Nature
harnessing the often
unruly element whose
service like all others
is within her agency.
Arcane forces indifferent
to good or ill as perceived
by her creatures unable
to persuade that 
perennially favoured guest,
summer, to linger yet
awhile lest the impatient
winds of fall outrun their
authority to usher to this
hemisphere unbidden but
by Nature, the appearance
of ill-winded winter.

Narrow Horizons

No need to travel, to look
beyond the comfort of the
familiar, the urge to discover
unknown things about the
greater world suppressed by
grim disinterest of those fully
infused with the unspoken belief
that beyond intimate borders
of everyday life there are no
revelations of experience
whose beckoning call might
be tempting enough to halt
resistance to exploring the 
unknown. Rural parochialism
Permeates every facet of the
residents' lives, simple facts
of the world beyond of no
conceivable use, extraneous
to their quiet satisfaction in life
that refuses to cross invisible
borders until, inevitably, the
headstones in the cemetery
over countless generations,
hold numbers of residents far
exceeding the living who cling
to their narrow, fulfilling
lives replete with material
poverty, supported by a
deliberate dearth of curiosity
and knowledge, clearly
redundant in communities
committed to existence that
knows nothing whatever of
beyond the great beyond.

Got You, Twice

Look here, be reasonable. No
need to treat me to an ill-natured
rant. You're no novice, there was ample
warning through the day when my
sun played peekaboo with my
angry clouds. Remember yesterday
when you were all primed to pursue
fall garden clean-up and vowed a
little shower wouldn't hold you back
and when the shower turned serious
you dug in your muddy heels and
said so what, then finally called
it a rainy day unfit for any kind of
gardening, drenched and miserable?
Hey, that was your feckless choice.
Today? Just downright reckless.
I saw you peruse the sky, half sunny,
the other half darkly overcast moving
steadily your way but you plunged 
into the forest trails regardless, sans
raingear, to tough it out. Well, tough.
It's autumn after all, and as a fellow
gardener you should know well
enough I've got my own agenda
that overrides your puny gardening
calendar. So October equals
uncompromising rain. Struggled
to secure a dry spot under a tree 
canopy didn't you? Didn't work
because rain and hail were pounding 
the atmosphere. Well, it's Nature's 
way, I tell you. Get over your fuming, 
steaming misery. No harm done. 
None, you silly cretin, intended.

The Observer's Eye

In any crowd this man would
stand alone, stand out, his
presence noted - how might it
not be? Impossible not to take
note, if only to experience
revulsion, pity, for how could
anyone allow themselves the
freedom to become a grotesque,
as he had? Colossus, an original,
his immense size, his girth, his
lumbering gait, his ponderous
presence at once pitiful yet
intimidating as though daring
the crowd to gape. And to their
credit the indifferent crowd
moved on, parting around him 
as he laboriously moved his
gross immensity uphill after
them. Not quite after, but among
for he struggled to attain without
ease of movement what others
easily gained without gravity
gravely denying ease. A daintier
version preceded him, struggling
as he did, as determined to gain
a height to enable observation
of a regional tourism draw,
one of nature's geological wonders
in a mountainside cleft over which
roared a waterfall. Convinced
at first swift glance that rural
ignorance strides before us, 
we hear between them the
cultured speech and perfect
diction of academic distinction 
in the rich, plummy tenor and
responding alto in a courtly
exchange of intimate concern.

 

Nature's Gems

The mountain lake, its
exquisite aqua lustre
gleaming crystalline
like the sky visiting
another dimension
hides its presence
behind the thick
and verdant screen
of pine and hemlock.
Wind gusts gently
ripple the lake's
surface, scattering
light like diamonds
carelessly sprinkled
on ice, until stillness
returns, the diamonds
disappear and the
mirror surface of the
lake reflects its
usual peaceful solitude.

The Crystal Stream

Streaming, feverishly racing
down the mountain slope
the steady crystal stream
thunders through primordial
crevices its might had long
ago etched within the granite
surface creating the runway
that the imperious runoff
everlastingly travels in an
ancient rote of replenishment
for the landscape below the
mountains where the summits
rear their peaks to snag
passing clouds, to arrest them
and puncture them, releasing
their immeasurable bounty
of rain to wash the mountain
and irrigate the soil below, in
an endless stream of timeless
renewal, the ineffable symbiosis
of elemental existence.

Nature's Imagination

In all directions radiating
from the mountain pass
the summits fold into one
another, an endless series
of broad-shouldered, tree-strewn
mountains with dense rockslides
stippling their slopes; naked
granite summits capturing
low-slung clouds, wearing
them like wigs on bald pates.
A shimmering of evanescent
light streams down as the sun
releases itself from the screen
of clouds, but soon melts away
when a gathering surge of
milky mist captures the peaks
mantling the slopes and the
summits in mystery, an opaque
shifting cloud of vast,
ephemeral properties and
the trees, the boulders and
the stark summits are suddenly
gone, no longer there, a mere
figment of nature's imagination.