Kananaskis Is

Kananaskis is four-fifths a line of haiku Kananaskis is With spring’s sudden warmth serial avalanches thunder one triggers the next Winter’s snow melting laughing, leaping, running to valley far below Green slopes banded red dying lodgepole pine, memories of last year’s Chinook Golden larch quivers as the first storm of winter passes close tonight As a boy, I came to know this quiet valley father's special place Leaving highway to where mountains reach to heaven we drove the stone road Fishing beaver ponds dad came on bees, lost his specs on return just bees One night as we camp a timberwolf comes to call returns to dark night On the upper lake clouds mask the solar eclipse but fish go crazy One spring’s discovery drawdown pools, teeming with trout who won’t touch anything A five pound rainbow beached chasing Peter’s lure red stripe - jealousy Late autumn, Lake B big browns cruise downwind beaches only we know where A ski resort appears wonderland needs paved roads we protest in vain Twenty years later returning with my children to an unknown place If you slow to look irate traffic leans on horns rushing to their lodge My kids and I fish a borrow pit now a“lake” tourists' put and take To a grizzly bear roads are barriers wider than flooding rivers Kananaskis is four-fifths a line of haiku Kananaskis is MM