"overgrazed" poems
Blackbrush -- Coleogyne ramosissima
the dominant understory shrub
in the pinyon-juniper canyons.
Mountain-mahogany -- Cercocarpus montanus and ledifolia.
Single-leaf ash -- Fraxinus anomalus
and possibly a western hophornbeam
by the small birch-like leaves
and the shredding bark
in a moist stretch of joint trail.
The joint-fir, green ephedra
looks like an ocean plant.
Could the wind or white water rivers alone
have shaped these sandstone, red rock forms?
Network of canyons, inverse of mountains.
It had to be ocean
ebbing and flowing, emotionally, like wind,
moving atmosphere, thicker
shaving, scraping, polishing, gouging, digging
fish canyons
then, shallower, dinosaur swamps
now, dry, rock gardens.
Explain the human history with water:
did the Anasazi visit neighbors
along the canyon rims and deep within,
combination caves and red-rock houses
small windows, doorways, just crawlways,
with corn gifts on summer evenings
when the canyon bottoms held permanent, not intermittent,
streams? After them
came the Ute and Navajo, Spanish and English.
Ravens dine on road ****
A few long red roads connect some canyons.
The unprotected flats are overgrazed, rabbitbrush.
It is interesting
that as I learn the woody and herbaceous plants,
walk the desert foothills, I too could stay.
Aug 9, 2015
Aug 9, 2015 at 2:19 PM UTC
Funny Funny never was put here for that reason
Little out your wants so I can convey
Night will build over the silly sap
Light still confirms,
It unbottles, severely brings up routes
Routes that lead you to unnamed territories
What's a climb worth
if the opening is a closure
Softer scents helped to serve
But passion created needs
We rose over footsteps,
Lended our confirmations
But straightening it out
doesn't seem to fill the void
Now, where is a conversation?
Aug 9, 2019
Aug 9, 2019 at 4:52 PM UTC