Winter passed, shadows fell
foreshortened, snow patches
yielded sight of forest floor depth,
early morning’s sunlight blazed
on tree tops, in motionless calm
of nearing spring; evergreen’s
burgeoned leaves where songbird’s
trumpet clear piping followed
far cirrus banners along chilled
blue skies. Distant summits rose
above high plateaus, ascending
sweeping arcs; capped stone spires
cleaved through like wave’s crests
below a cloud capped majesty
hidden in mystery.
Shoreline’s gentle swell rolled
in cradle rocking pulse, met stone
strewn land’s edge, pines stood at
water line; bathed chill dampness,
faint breezes landward rising; all
gazing to the waters’ embraced earth
like sentinels from other lives
and times. Unto it flowed jumbled
snow melt wash, cut bare swatches
down long slope forested parks
to shore’s waiting arms. Freshets
yielding washed away sparse soils,
spring runs heavy through tight
boulder strewn gullies, murmuring
rapid’s misty churning pools, swore
boundless sustenance; as others
had seen the same, yet turned away
to the traces of their own arrivals
in morning’s wakening chants.
Freighter’s gear wheeling along,
white mist; pillared tall smoke,
columns climbing straight as ship’s
spars, rattle of camp pans, turning
mill of yarder’s engines, silence
parting bite of faller’s axes over
rhythmic cross cut choruses digging
into wood, and when it finished,
only overgrown roadways remained.
There they slept, wending ancient
stump strewn landscapes; new growth
meeting its long struggle, reclaiming
daylight set barrens beneath low
brushy canopies; mournful cooing
of doves above small hooved herds,
moving haltingly to water.
