Sunday, November 28, 2010

Surrounded by Wild Turkeys


Little calls as they pass
Through dry forbs and grasses
Under blue oak and gray digger pine
In the warm afternoon of the forest-fire haze;

Twenty or more, long-legged birds
all alike.

So are we, in our soft calling,
passing on through.

Our young, which trail after,

Look just like us.


-- Gary Snyder

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Power of Maples



If you want to live in the country
you have to understand the power of maples.
You have to see them sink their teeth
into the roots of the old locusts.
You have to see them force the sycamores to gasp for air.
You have to see them move their thick hairs into the cellar.
And when you cut your great green shad pole
you have to be ready for it to start sprouting in your hands;
you have to stick it in the ground like a piece of willow;
you have to place your table under its leaves and begin eating.

-- Gerald Stern