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"foothills" poems
Pikachu is not totally fiction after all, There's this cute rodent called Pika, This Pika is Pikachu's inspiration, Found in the foothills of Sikkim, But the scientists think it's new, Pika is one tiny Indian rodent, Its standing posture, its ears, Have been the inspiration, Not just now but for long, Since antiquity it's there, Only now got discovered.
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Oct 1, 2016
Oct 1, 2016 at 10:34 PM UTC
Pika!
THERE is a wolf in me ... fangs pointed for tearing gashes ... a red tongue for raw meat ... and the hot lapping of blood-I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go. There is a fox in me ... a silver-gray fox ... I sniff and guess ... I pick things out of the wind and air ... I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers ... I circle and loop and double-cross. There is a hog in me ... a snout and a belly ... a machinery for eating and grunting ... a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun-I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go. There is a fish in me ... I know I came from saltblue water-gates ... I scurried with shoals of herring ... I blew waterspouts with porpoises ... before land was ... before the water went down ... before Noah ... before the first chapter of Genesis. There is a baboon in me ... clambering-clawed ... dog-faced ... yawping a galoot's hunger ... hairy under the armpits ... here are the hawk-eyed hankering men ... here are the blond and blue-eyed women ... here they hide curled asleep waiting ... ready to snarl and **** ... ready to sing and give milk ... waiting-I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so. There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird ... and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want ... and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes-And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness. O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart-and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where-For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and **** and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.
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Wilderness
THERE is a wolf in me ... fangs pointed for tearing gashes ... a red tongue for raw meat ... and the hot lapping of blood-I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go. There is a fox in me ... a silver-gray fox ... I sniff and guess ... I pick things out of the wind and air ... I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers ... I circle and loop and double-cross. There is a hog in me ... a snout and a belly ... a machinery for eating and grunting ... a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun-I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go. There is a fish in me ... I know I came from saltblue water-gates ... I scurried with shoals of herring ... I blew waterspouts with porpoises ... before land was ... before the water went down ... before Noah ... before the first chapter of Genesis. There is a baboon in me ... clambering-clawed ... dog-faced ... yawping a galoot's hunger ... hairy under the armpits ... here are the hawk-eyed hankering men ... here are the blond and blue-eyed women ... here they hide curled asleep waiting ... ready to snarl and **** ... ready to sing and give milk ... waiting-I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so. There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird ... and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want ... and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes-And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness. O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart-and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where-For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and **** and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.
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A life in poetry, A love in art Set forth on a path that extends forever. Though the closest reaches climb high Over mountain and dale, through ravine and shadow, The path goes on and as it does, descends into light: So much light, more light than one can resolve. It blurs the boundaries of the great valley Splashes of green, the wonderful glare of richness A river runs through the valley and nourishes the fruit The sweetest fruit. It nourishes the body, Nourishes the soul: renews, enriches, grows, sustains. The path extends to the horizon. And beyond. As it grows from the foothills it branches Forming a fractal road of possibility. Like roots growing from the mountain, There appears nothing more natural in the world. As the paths go on, they passes through diverse landscapes Some places they make sharp changes in direction, Some places they pass through further patches of shadow, Some places they grow wider, Some places they get rocky, But nowhere does the path narrow, beyond the first stretch, Where the paths split, and over the mountains rejoin. Beyond that there is always enough room for two To walk astride. Side by Side in Sunlight. Hand in Hand. For Maya. Donald Guy July 5, 2010.
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Nov 3, 2012
Nov 3, 2012 at 2:37 AM UTC
Our Path
Back when it took all day to come up from the curving broad ponds on the plains where the green-winged jacanas ran on the lily pads easing past tracks at the mouths of gorges crossing villages silted in hollows in the foothills each with its lime-washed church by the baked square of red earth and its talkers eating fruit under trees turning a corner and catching sight at last of inky forests far above steep as faces with the clouds stroking them and the glimmering airy valleys opening out of them waterfalls still roared from the folds of the mountain white and thundering and spray drifted around us swirling into the broad leaves and the waiting boughs once I took a tin cup and climbed the sluiced rocks and mossy branches beside one of the high falls looking up step by step into the green sky from which rain was falling when I looked back from a ledge there were only dripping leaves below me and flowers beside me the hissing cataract plunged into the trees holding on I moved closer left foot on a rock in the water right foot on a rock in deeper water at the edge of the fall then from under the weight of my right foot came a voice like a small bell singing over and over one clear treble syllable I could feel it move I could feel it ring in my foot in my skin everywhere in my ears in my hair I could feel it in my tongue and in the hand holding the cup as long as I stood there it went on without changing when I moved the cup still it went on when I filled the cup in the falling column still it went on when I drank it rang in my eyes through the thunder curtain when I filled the cup again when I raised my foot still it went on and all the way down from wet rock to wet rock green branch to green branch it came with me until I stood looking up and we drank the light water and when we went on we could still hear the sound as far as the next turn on the way over
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Hearing
Back when it took all day to come up from the curving broad ponds on the plains where the green-winged jacanas ran on the lily pads easing past tracks at the mouths of gorges crossing villages silted in hollows in the foothills each with its lime-washed church by the baked square of red earth and its talkers eating fruit under trees turning a corner and catching sight at last of inky forests far above steep as faces with the clouds stroking them and the glimmering airy valleys opening out of them waterfalls still roared from the folds of the mountain white and thundering and spray drifted around us swirling into the broad leaves and the waiting boughs once I took a tin cup and climbed the sluiced rocks and mossy branches beside one of the high falls looking up step by step into the green sky from which rain was falling when I looked back from a ledge there were only dripping leaves below me and flowers beside me the hissing cataract plunged into the trees holding on I moved closer left foot on a rock in the water right foot on a rock in deeper water at the edge of the fall then from under the weight of my right foot came a voice like a small bell singing over and over one clear treble syllable I could feel it move I could feel it ring in my foot in my skin everywhere in my ears in my hair I could feel it in my tongue and in the hand holding the cup as long as I stood there it went on without changing when I moved the cup still it went on when I filled the cup in the falling column still it went on when I drank it rang in my eyes through the thunder curtain when I filled the cup again when I raised my foot still it went on and all the way down from wet rock to wet rock green branch to green branch it came with me until I stood looking up and we drank the light water and when we went on we could still hear the sound as far as the next turn on the way over
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Dry veins branch the dead gulch cinder cones set on a marble tan scape fanning sands sketch ephemeral fossil plates fold under columns of gray Mountain back steep at the crevasse sinkhole spots form on parallel nine sulfur pipe stems from molten ash withered shrubs and crumbling spines silt fields cover the foothills swayback shed near the Whipple tree barn tumbledown shacks form the patchwork from goat canyon ranch to big bison farm Salt lakes fractured in amber sickle-bush cut at the bowline knot a half-moon traced by the viper oxbow streams and valley grot
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Feb 13, 2019
Feb 13, 2019 at 1:43 PM UTC
The Foothills of Colima
#***" Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend." - Albert Camus***                  ~              ~               ~     The telegraph road circled through the foothills, rising towards the majestic mountain high It’s been a long and twisting passage soon forgotten, with the pavement abruptly dead ending,   just below the timberline The dawning blue heavens look so much closer now Just a step away from standing within reach                                   The birds uplifted on the telegraph wire rest atop me; perched on the final material traces disregarded by a digital world My awakening soul is ascending beyond the distant alpine meadow horizon   At the threshold of an untrodden wilderness wonderland, climbing up above the meandering clouds It’s exhilarating to look back and know there is no turning back around; I’ve never been higher and can never get back down What unknown frontier lies in wait before me now? Just on the other side of the impossible dream? The last step forward to find the next step beyond the bounds There is not that much that changes, when we just repeat the same old song The atmosphere’s thin air leaves me gasping for wings Like dust and ashes free to soar with the tempest breeze If only time would sever these loathsome ties that bind The ones that enchain the weight of this load unto me While understanding the pace to a long journey’s rhythm The only barometer you have to trust is in your heart Adaptation is at the core of freedom's survival But it feels almost like running away   I have felt the fear of falling with nothing left to lose I’ve climbed as far as flesh and bones can reach I've come this far always feeling subtly afraid It has been a great distance back from the beginning; knowing I must take these last steps alone. Understanding it was love that brought me here Naturally tugs at the spirit in my soul encouraging me on I'll keep searching for the shining light of guidance Listening for a voice that softly beckons me home... written by:    harlon rivers ... May 24th, 2013
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May 28, 2018
May 28, 2018 at 10:18 AM UTC
' Beyond the Telegraph Road ' ― a poem in memoriam of the love of friends, brothers & promises ...
#***" Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend." - Albert Camus***                  ~              ~               ~     The telegraph road circled through the foothills, rising towards the majestic mountain high It’s been a long and twisting passage soon forgotten, with the pavement abruptly dead ending,   just below the timberline The dawning blue heavens look so much closer now Just a step away from standing within reach                                   The birds uplifted on the telegraph wire rest atop me; perched on the final material traces disregarded by a digital world My awakening soul is ascending beyond the distant alpine meadow horizon   At the threshold of an untrodden wilderness wonderland, climbing up above the meandering clouds It’s exhilarating to look back and know there is no turning back around; I’ve never been higher and can never get back down What unknown frontier lies in wait before me now? Just on the other side of the impossible dream? The last step forward to find the next step beyond the bounds There is not that much that changes, when we just repeat the same old song The atmosphere’s thin air leaves me gasping for wings Like dust and ashes free to soar with the tempest breeze If only time would sever these loathsome ties that bind The ones that enchain the weight of this load unto me While understanding the pace to a long journey’s rhythm The only barometer you have to trust is in your heart Adaptation is at the core of freedom's survival But it feels almost like running away   I have felt the fear of falling with nothing left to lose I’ve climbed as far as flesh and bones can reach I've come this far always feeling subtly afraid It has been a great distance back from the beginning; knowing I must take these last steps alone. Understanding it was love that brought me here Naturally tugs at the spirit in my soul encouraging me on I'll keep searching for the shining light of guidance Listening for a voice that softly beckons me home... written by:    harlon rivers ... May 24th, 2013
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Pilsner cap switch blade tie dye and piccolo greasers and freaks with platform feet muscling in on the bow legged hoofer tapping Bursey Hill Tram Diamond tuft console mullets n' **** angels and saints (unrestrained) appropriately trimmed as 3 mile wreaks havoc on the nickers and fighters of penn Bangers and home boys hookahs and sheiks hostile geeks breaking knuckles and jaws on the caners and skinners who are locked and grinding the root Desert boot foothills boardwalk jeans rainbows and sea fairs and psychedelic dreams (the platinum queens jamming it hard on the jade room floor) 8 tracks and fender packs the hottest summer days psychedelic haze center hall, graffiti scrawl (sinister yet refined!) covering the subtle yet striking third **** Brunswick cues and red man chew 350 blocks (on a solid Chevy - stock) monkeys and beatles and laugh in scenes pastel dreams from the long and coveted velvet scroll
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Mar 5, 2019
Mar 5, 2019 at 12:39 AM UTC
Zeitgeist
The Ganges rushes in torrents from my eyes and threatens to sweep me away it’s been four lonely years Sai Krishna I wait in the foothills of Mount Kailash the sun and the moon wait with me the earth has ceased its wild spin and the stars have lost their merry twinkle O Swami what we wouldn’t give to gaze once more into your lotus orbs Sai Krishna mountain peacocks with bright plumes chant Your name and silver tongued nightingales perched in high branches sing of Your divine exploits the empty jhoola is adorned with garlands and sweet rose petals Blue skinned Lord You alone are the source of Bliss Grant us Your divine darshan cuddle close to us tonight http://www.sairapture.com/krishna-madhava.html
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Aug 12, 2015
Aug 12, 2015 at 11:05 AM UTC
Krishna Madhava
From the starting point in Poland To the hedgerows of France High above the English countryside to the depths of the Atlantic In the sand-ridden dunes of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to the foothills and mountains of Sicily and Italy From the Pacific to Asia minor we fought Storming the beaches of Normandy to taking back France From Guadalcanal to Okinawa from Burma to China We fought
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Aug 18, 2013
Aug 18, 2013 at 11:16 PM UTC
A Theater of War
Enter Lizzy in the foothill forests & Loki up in the mountains Both say their hymns separately initially. Loki at the mountains Loki: I am so happy of my freedom Lizzy in the forest at the foothills Lizzy: I can't imagine of a better situation Loki moving down the mountain Loki: But I want a true lover to mould me better Lizzy moving towards the mountain Lizzy: I now want a true lover to honor my feelings They meet each other and conversation follows Loki: How could I come across such a beauty! Lizzy: Even I think likewise, you are so handsome! Loki: Come, let's make love right now & right here. Lizzy: How could you ****** me so easily, is it a magic. Loki: My name is Loki, I'm the God here and you should fall into my arms listening this. Loki transforms into his celestial form. Lizzy faints seeing Loki's transformation as she realizes that it was the dreaded-scheming Norse God. Loki catches her as she faints and takes her to his cave on the mountain.
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May 2, 2013
May 2, 2013 at 7:00 AM UTC
Loki - The Schemer
I came up in Pittsburgh, the Rust Belt of hard labor with a deep love of community. As children, we collected railroad spikes from the tracks and we cut our shins on random iron shards in **** hills. Some of us were union middle-class and others breathed the gray air of poverty. That hardly mattered. As we stood atop foothills that overlooked the city skyline, soot embedded under our fingernails, we lived as kings and queens that oversaw the future. -Ron Gavalik
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Jul 18, 2018
Jul 18, 2018 at 2:18 PM UTC
Hard Labor Love
for Mark Richards It was a spur of the moment thing -          One message freed us from Tuesday’s calling - The next offered a morning's sailing.   So rather than spray water for Rocky's plants,        We skimmed over Carter Lake’s, crystal waves With steady and ample winds at our backs. Boaters and tubers speckled the waters       While verdant foothills smiled assent From every shore and horizon. Captain Richards skippered his Flying Scot          Toward the far off shore before tacking our To and fro way back to the mooring ball. In years past Mark had captained the Health works          For all the good folks of Pennsylvania, But this morning he guided a much smaller tiller. So we sailed and sailed under fairest of skies         In a swift and charmed little craft Mark chose to call, Spur of the Moment. Robert Charles Howard
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Jul 26, 2022
Jul 26, 2022 at 6:29 PM UTC
Under Carter Lake Skies
September speaks in dull sand flecks and billowing my stiffened skirt to kneecaps rested on for prayer, grinded on for *** It pokes and I’ll awake – I am just like a ***** in the autumn morn first torn, the first born of a hundred encounters of which I would not believe it could be the opus of. Ladies lose physical barriers, but they do not evade a September when orchards are trimmed and all that’s beneath is unveiled: see it with my glass eye. No dust inside. See it with your honey bulbs – the foothills, the knees married to the floor where stars first aligned, so I ****** you off.
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Mar 19, 2013
Mar 19, 2013 at 12:04 AM UTC
september
Across the ice a baritone Projects his notes of steel, A tenor’s harmonizing Adds that melancholy feel And the glory of the voices Flows out through alders bare And the listeners weep for Russia’s soul And the tragedy found there. The tragic melancholy Found in every Russian heart Liberated by the sadness A fine harmony can impart. Of the monolithic yesterdays, Those forgotten fields of dead And that fire within the ***** Which numbs the agony of the head. Dark stains along the timber wall Wood fire’s stones make steam It fills the room with stifling heat Which sweats the bodies clean. Red wheals raised on shoulders Birch branches whip the back Whilst companion tones of maleness Speak in vectors women lack. Red larches in the foothills Gold lantern light on snow, The vastness of ancient steppes Of Central Asia grow. A viola’s velvet passion Sighs beneath a cottage door And the sadness in sensation Brings grown men to weep once more. The vastness of the terrain The hardness of the land, The bitter cold of northern wind, Each freezing winter spanned By Siberia’s lashing gales, White snow is metres deep And turquois ice as hard as steel Beneath which... rivers creep. Dostoyevsky,Kruschev, Rasputin and the Tsars, Great Lenin, Marx and Trotsky And the swords of Horse Hussars. Gorbachev the great redeemer, Poor Yeltsin’s pale white skin And the ****** found in Stalin's smile Span the politics of sin. This great Russian melancholy Lies deep within the soul It’s a legacy of yesterday Of her history's brutal goal. It’s a product of the suffering Inherent in the past Endured by legions of the people Then dispensed with… With a laugh! Marshalg @theBach Mangere Bridge 13 April 2009
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Jan 27, 2010
Jan 27, 2010 at 10:46 PM UTC
Melancholy Russia
Across the ice a baritone Projects his notes of steel, A tenor’s harmonizing Adds that melancholy feel And the glory of the voices Flows out through alders bare And the listeners weep for Russia’s soul And the tragedy found there. The tragic melancholy Found in every Russian heart Liberated by the sadness A fine harmony can impart. Of the monolithic yesterdays, Those forgotten fields of dead And that fire within the ***** Which numbs the agony of the head. Dark stains along the timber wall Wood fire’s stones make steam It fills the room with stifling heat Which sweats the bodies clean. Red wheals raised on shoulders Birch branches whip the back Whilst companion tones of maleness Speak in vectors women lack. Red larches in the foothills Gold lantern light on snow, The vastness of ancient steppes Of Central Asia grow. A viola’s velvet passion Sighs beneath a cottage door And the sadness in sensation Brings grown men to weep once more. The vastness of the terrain The hardness of the land, The bitter cold of northern wind, Each freezing winter spanned By Siberia’s lashing gales, White snow is metres deep And turquois ice as hard as steel Beneath which... rivers creep. Dostoyevsky,Kruschev, Rasputin and the Tsars, Great Lenin, Marx and Trotsky And the swords of Horse Hussars. Gorbachev the great redeemer, Poor Yeltsin’s pale white skin And the ****** found in Stalin's smile Span the politics of sin. This great Russian melancholy Lies deep within the soul It’s a legacy of yesterday Of her history's brutal goal. It’s a product of the suffering Inherent in the past Endured by legions of the people Then dispensed with… With a laugh! Marshalg @theBach Mangere Bridge 13 April 2009
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When a mountain I dare not climb the ropes and tackles are in abundance In great shape my body and mind Not a weak link in the expedition But when a mountain I dare to climb the ropes and tackles are often misplaced Out of shape my body and mind Weakness as a spell does bind Hopes and dreams of tireless youth can be all but forgotten in the spiritually aged Strength the glittering cloak of youth can fade in weakening jaded resolve But in me common traits dissolve The bucking steed will never be tamed Pigeon-holed the misfortune of other souls has not been allowed by my resolve But this determination is not without cost The foothills of youth are far removed by erosion caused by unstable belief systems washed away into the Sea of Ambiguity A distant mountain I often see (distance the deceiver of proportion) Challenged at the foot of the formidable sight halfway climbing only to slip and fall Does this mountain need to be climbed Do youthful dreams need to be fulfilled When these dreams are all you ever had you wake up falling or climbing higher Driven by dreams and gifts and talents that rage like a river in the driest desert calling home what must come home holding on to what must be fulfilled Obstacles that have become landmarks seem to fade into obscurity like threats that always remain empty laughing at what used to bring tears I remain standing through all these trials not unscathed and a bit weather beaten halfway up another formidable mountain making up for lost time from a major fall.
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Jan 23, 2017
Jan 23, 2017 at 4:34 PM UTC
When a Mountain I Dare to Climb
When a mountain I dare not climb the ropes and tackles are in abundance In great shape my body and mind Not a weak link in the expedition But when a mountain I dare to climb the ropes and tackles are often misplaced Out of shape my body and mind Weakness as a spell does bind Hopes and dreams of tireless youth can be all but forgotten in the spiritually aged Strength the glittering cloak of youth can fade in weakening jaded resolve But in me common traits dissolve The bucking steed will never be tamed Pigeon-holed the misfortune of other souls has not been allowed by my resolve But this determination is not without cost The foothills of youth are far removed by erosion caused by unstable belief systems washed away into the Sea of Ambiguity A distant mountain I often see (distance the deceiver of proportion) Challenged at the foot of the formidable sight halfway climbing only to slip and fall Does this mountain need to be climbed Do youthful dreams need to be fulfilled When these dreams are all you ever had you wake up falling or climbing higher Driven by dreams and gifts and talents that rage like a river in the driest desert calling home what must come home holding on to what must be fulfilled Obstacles that have become landmarks seem to fade into obscurity like threats that always remain empty laughing at what used to bring tears I remain standing through all these trials not unscathed and a bit weather beaten halfway up another formidable mountain making up for lost time from a major fall.
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I live in Moshi,Tanzania, As a child,one day I got lost, A maasai took me to his home. He lived at the foothills of the majestic Mt.Kilimanjaro, His home was a kraal (hut) made of  stone,sticks and cow dung. I cried for my parents, So he fed me milk and blood from a cow, He pierced a hole in the cow's neck, He put a bamboo and told me to drink the blood, It was warm but I vomited, Gradually, I got used to it. The maasai's  way of life is communilism, Hunting,gathering and raiding neighbours cattle. Theirs is an age set system for men, The children look after the herd, I joined them having fun, No  school, no lessons or homework. Then,there were the Morans,the youths, They wore black **** cloths, Carried a spear in one hand, Their faces were painted with white ochre. They protected the clan and the cattle, From predators and other tribes. They lived in a circle of huts called manyatta. After being circumcised the Morans were taught the art of warfare The bravest warrior got to wear the feathers of an ostrich. The senior morans could marry and settle down, The Moran who jumped the highest got the best girl. The Laigewenanis trained the morans to be warriors, My maasai was a laigwenani, Like all maasais, he was tall and lean, He wore a bright red shuka cloth with black stripes, A red tartan blanket was slung on his shoulder, He always held a long bladed stabbing spear, His long hair was tightly braided, He had ochre painted on his body, He had no children and treated me like his son, He would take me to teach the morans about warfare. But,he had to take the permission of the chief, the Laibon. The Laibons were the chief religious leaders, They settled disputes, They decided when and on whom to attack. Luckily,after two months my maasai and I had gone to a game reserve for hunting, A game warden found me. He alerted the police and I was taken home safely. But,I missed my maasai and their pastoral way of life.
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Apr 17, 2018
Apr 17, 2018 at 5:12 PM UTC
Maasai Way Of Life
I live in Moshi,Tanzania, As a child,one day I got lost, A maasai took me to his home. He lived at the foothills of the majestic Mt.Kilimanjaro, His home was a kraal (hut) made of  stone,sticks and cow dung. I cried for my parents, So he fed me milk and blood from a cow, He pierced a hole in the cow's neck, He put a bamboo and told me to drink the blood, It was warm but I vomited, Gradually, I got used to it. The maasai's  way of life is communilism, Hunting,gathering and raiding neighbours cattle. Theirs is an age set system for men, The children look after the herd, I joined them having fun, No  school, no lessons or homework. Then,there were the Morans,the youths, They wore black **** cloths, Carried a spear in one hand, Their faces were painted with white ochre. They protected the clan and the cattle, From predators and other tribes. They lived in a circle of huts called manyatta. After being circumcised the Morans were taught the art of warfare The bravest warrior got to wear the feathers of an ostrich. The senior morans could marry and settle down, The Moran who jumped the highest got the best girl. The Laigewenanis trained the morans to be warriors, My maasai was a laigwenani, Like all maasais, he was tall and lean, He wore a bright red shuka cloth with black stripes, A red tartan blanket was slung on his shoulder, He always held a long bladed stabbing spear, His long hair was tightly braided, He had ochre painted on his body, He had no children and treated me like his son, He would take me to teach the morans about warfare. But,he had to take the permission of the chief, the Laibon. The Laibons were the chief religious leaders, They settled disputes, They decided when and on whom to attack. Luckily,after two months my maasai and I had gone to a game reserve for hunting, A game warden found me. He alerted the police and I was taken home safely. But,I missed my maasai and their pastoral way of life.
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47
In spring, green along the river amid ancestral foothills, we walk deer trails wild in the woods of scented pine of silver sycamores, silken barked stark, they pale against bluest skies their new leaves green and glistening we are listening for songbirds, for a language without words transfixed, through this portal, reborn in this world warm winds speak sweet and susurrus of spring melodious they sing, leaving far behind the cold, the dead of winter.
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Mar 30, 2016
Mar 30, 2016 at 9:31 PM UTC
The woods in spring
We have let go of our frantic lust for the shiny metal in the Sacramento hills. It was hard for my grandfather, in coming west on horse and with wagon, dragging a family across the pimpled skin of the young land, to help John Sutter build his new empire. He then found that his dream of good land for ranching was subverted with easy gold. Grandfather’s first home on the bank of the river: a tule hut, or grass hut, left behind by Mi-wuk Indians, who wandered with the elk and circulated with the wonderment of passing stars; no regard for what shined beneath them. It’s in the luring poems and the stories that the old California adventure comes back to us. No one longer builds much with grass, and cannot so easily pick out fortunes by following the earth’s deep cracks. Some would walk away from jobs and cities, bulging packs strapped on shoulders, and head up through the openings and narrowings of the valleys, and into the foothills of the Sierras. Camp beside ****** trout holes and dip into the riffled water at the edge of perfect green mirrors: to find what is precious and become free from the cycle of the frantic lust.
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Apr 30, 2015
Apr 30, 2015 at 10:15 AM UTC
Gold Rush
Oh California! How my heart burns for you, how beautiful you are! The greenest trees and the most picturesque beaches. The soft sands of the desert, and the rolling slopes of the foothills. My body, my mind, my spirit, all belong to you, oh Great and Wonderful! California. Your hills are on fire, scarring the beauty of your curves. Your rivers run dry, suffocating the green into brown. How my heart cries for you! Oh dry, oh burning, oh how relentless this war against you, oh California! And there is no relief in sight, winter promises no respite, and the summer will be long and tough and dry like the ones before and before and before. Oh California! How I tremble, how I shake in awe, your sun burns a bright orange, smoke fills your sunsets, even fire cannot detract from your beauty! Oh cleansing rains! Oh cleansing El Niño! Oh how I beg you to save California! My California! My roots go deeper than that of the greatest redwood, California is my home, and not the most fearsome of fires could cause me to leave, not the fiercest and most ruthless of droughts could scare me away! Oh California! Let my tears be absorbed by your thirsty soil! Let my body one day feed your hungry crops! Oh California! I am yours, to the very last. God bless California! God bless the desert and the mountains! God bless the foothills and the valleys! God bless the beaches and the forests! God bless my home and spare it from the relentless. California is my God, and I hope she hears my prayers!
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Sep 17, 2015
Sep 17, 2015 at 11:02 PM UTC
California! (or No Relief From the Relentless)
Oh California! How my heart burns for you, how beautiful you are! The greenest trees and the most picturesque beaches. The soft sands of the desert, and the rolling slopes of the foothills. My body, my mind, my spirit, all belong to you, oh Great and Wonderful! California. Your hills are on fire, scarring the beauty of your curves. Your rivers run dry, suffocating the green into brown. How my heart cries for you! Oh dry, oh burning, oh how relentless this war against you, oh California! And there is no relief in sight, winter promises no respite, and the summer will be long and tough and dry like the ones before and before and before. Oh California! How I tremble, how I shake in awe, your sun burns a bright orange, smoke fills your sunsets, even fire cannot detract from your beauty! Oh cleansing rains! Oh cleansing El Niño! Oh how I beg you to save California! My California! My roots go deeper than that of the greatest redwood, California is my home, and not the most fearsome of fires could cause me to leave, not the fiercest and most ruthless of droughts could scare me away! Oh California! Let my tears be absorbed by your thirsty soil! Let my body one day feed your hungry crops! Oh California! I am yours, to the very last. God bless California! God bless the desert and the mountains! God bless the foothills and the valleys! God bless the beaches and the forests! God bless my home and spare it from the relentless. California is my God, and I hope she hears my prayers!
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32
This One Time, I stripped naked and ****** my couch. This other time I threw a copy of The Fountainhead at an RV moving at 64 miles an hour I have a tree In the foothills named Clementine Valencia Jeff and the same day, me and John made a religion with Adam based on cloud formations You see, I'm a weird guy I got I got problems I see a therapist Her name's Rhonda She likes Batmaa aaaaan She sees people worse than me but recognizes I got problems and she she tries to help cause cause I got problems and the and the problem with having problems is is function You You can't do anything You live to defy expectation And - and it's really hard to get into college You never really get accepted and and and even if even if you do you you you never really accept that It's hard out there for a freak I get lost within my own ridiculous quandaries You feel like you're not you're not built right like something's wrong and you just punch and and kick and and destroy Whatever feels des- destroy able because it gives purpose Bu But I finally think I -I found my mantra My my My compass thing My map whatever It has the same number of letters of something very very dear to me and and that holds meaning I I wrote it on the back of my door my door and- and I sprayed it on a shirt I actually got it from a videogame with with a with Ayn Randian themes It's religious and and every night now before I go to sleep I I- I look into Neil Patrick Harris's eyes feel the warmth of my wonderful blanket admire some handiwork read about serial arson close my eyes and tell myself She is our Salvation
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Nov 6, 2011
Nov 6, 2011 at 2:05 PM UTC
****
This One Time, I stripped naked and ****** my couch. This other time I threw a copy of The Fountainhead at an RV moving at 64 miles an hour I have a tree In the foothills named Clementine Valencia Jeff and the same day, me and John made a religion with Adam based on cloud formations You see, I'm a weird guy I got I got problems I see a therapist Her name's Rhonda She likes Batmaa aaaaan She sees people worse than me but recognizes I got problems and she she tries to help cause cause I got problems and the and the problem with having problems is is function You You can't do anything You live to defy expectation And - and it's really hard to get into college You never really get accepted and and and even if even if you do you you you never really accept that It's hard out there for a freak I get lost within my own ridiculous quandaries You feel like you're not you're not built right like something's wrong and you just punch and and kick and and destroy Whatever feels des- destroy able because it gives purpose Bu But I finally think I -I found my mantra My my My compass thing My map whatever It has the same number of letters of something very very dear to me and and that holds meaning I I wrote it on the back of my door my door and- and I sprayed it on a shirt I actually got it from a videogame with with a with Ayn Randian themes It's religious and and every night now before I go to sleep I I- I look into Neil Patrick Harris's eyes feel the warmth of my wonderful blanket admire some handiwork read about serial arson close my eyes and tell myself She is our Salvation
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83
I lost my first wedding ring soon after we married, floating on inner tubes coupled together, drinking ice-cold beer in the sun. A flash of gold and it was gone. I lost the boots my father wore in Vietnam and the first pocketknife I ever owned. I lost my brother even though he wasn’t mine to lose. I lost my way in college, month after month, watching mountain birds turn wide circles above rough canyons, heavy snow smothering the foothills and switchbacks. I lost track of time but found my father’s gun. Winter will always sound like the whir of a cylinder spun in an unfurnished room.
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Jun 9, 2017
Jun 9, 2017 at 3:05 PM UTC
Found
these foothills rolling in pine and grassland meadows, where silvery lupine follow the melting snow, hint of the mountains to come in spiny crags that catch a cumulus pocked sky cottonwood tufts rain this day after solstice
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Jun 30, 2016
Jun 30, 2016 at 2:23 PM UTC
these foothills
Evening in her slippered feet Approaches from the heat of day Shadows in the molten light Lengthen as they have their way Silence in the hovered moment Stillness in the mote of time, The glow within a sunbeam's ray Ensnares the warmth of joy as mine. Drifting insects float on bye Suspended in the evening light Against the lace of silver birch With gnarled trunk of speckled white. In the dark  blue, far azure A gosshawk glides on high, aloft A predator surveying late For living things in farmer's croft. A waterfall of children's laughter Cascades through a field of green, Overtones of golden shadow Fills the air with love unseen. Earthworms in their darkened tombs Are wriggling for the coming night, Rabbits stretch and move to grazing Anxious for the closing light. The chill night air descends as dew The picnickers depart the scene, Starlings flock to perch and roost Whilst velvet silence hangs serene Vaulting high above the foothills Crowned with purple alpenglow Taranaki's snowclad grandeur Last to see the day light go. Contemplation be my friend For deep within contentment's breast The joy of living sings it's song And sooths my happy soul to rest. Marshalg Taranaki Evensong 23 October 2010
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Oct 27, 2010
Oct 27, 2010 at 1:10 AM UTC
Taranaki Evensong
Allow me my love to lift you up Through the best and worst of times With mountains beyond these foothills Arm in arm we both will climb Don't mind the daily pressures That tend to come from every side Or the weight of the situation As you are heavy on my mind At the turn of every tunnel Though dim there is a light Helps in keeping focused In never losing sight If you can count on anything It's the true love of my might No matter the weight of the rainy days You are heavy on my mind Life can be counted off in seconds In its maddening rush of time If along the way there are no lessons Consider it a crime Don't make light of the situation Or of the chains that bind You are the mix inside of the making As you are heavy on my mind
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Apr 18, 2017
Apr 18, 2017 at 10:56 AM UTC
Heavy on my Mind
I want to plant foothills by the stairs. Broad basins on the chipping white paint. Flaking from the ceiling in droplets. Watering the drought of steps of vacated conversation, inner tongues flicking pleasured thoughts. Touches sprawled on black sand paper are compressed by our synced footsteps. Intertwined by laced fingers and hungry thrusts. Backpedaling to the peak, it causes cautious urches. The snowy ridges still chipping off, lips sealed together puzzled by whom will break first. Or if the sprouting seed inside is blooming in the other……….I still can’t figure out when you walk down the steps.
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Mar 26, 2013
Mar 26, 2013 at 11:18 AM UTC
Foothills By The Stairs