Best Ponderosa Pine Poems

"I've rode the range now fer nigh on sixty years,
Brandin' dogies and ropin' them wily Hereford steers.
When I come to the end of the trail, I don't want no big scenes.
Boys, jes' wrap me in my hoss's blanket and bury me in my jeans!"

"I don't...

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Aspen, ponderosa pine, blue spruce
pink glacier-cut rock, scree, ravens
gray jay, peregrine falcon, hawk.

We climb to 11,000 feet in three days, 
camp at Lawn Lake for three days. Alpine
tundra. Elk, bighorn sheep, marmot.

Tileston Meadows, ticks in grass, 
rock face of Mummy Mountain.
Binoculars show pink cracks in...

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When I glanced out my window on this bleak December morn,
My eyes were drawn to the Ponderosa Pine standing so forlorn.
Gradually, as if decorated by God's own Artistic Hand,
'Twas soon bedecked with colorful ornaments so very grand!

Its boughs were adorned by garlands of snow in...

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I needn't don a tuxedo nor pay a dime to enjoy a pleasing symphony!
In my own back yard or lying abed at night I hear nature's harmony!
The rolling bass of thunder, the strobe-bright lightning on a stormy night,
Plus the rain pelting my windowpane, anoint me...

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Hank lounged on the bunkhouse porch tossin' back some beers,

Watchin' the sunset and reminiscin' about his cowboyin' years.

He peered at the sun 'twixt the pointy toes of his shabby boots

Propped on the railin', that he'd wore durin' his cowpokin' pursuits!

He'd bought 'em fer about twelve...

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I like to watch skeins of geese flying in the autumn sky,
And I like the smell of frying bacon and luscious cherry pie!

I like to see the sun tinting Pikes Peak's crown in the early morn,
And the glorious Colorado sky as the sun ends its...

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Although I hardly gave it a thought
I didn't really doubt
our miniature juniper, a bonsai,
would survive our desert vacation.
                           ...

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This doodling Yankee (boot noah dandy) 
doth newt lack chutzpah, 
tries to finagle Fitbit fitting figurative footwear, 
that ideally Fitzhugh 
like custom made glove snugly, 
terrifically, unequivocally matching, 
thence handily solving Finger hut issue, 
when or if arctic blasts cold 
doggedly enveloped Gaea, 

whence ...

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A cowboy don't need no plushy pew or a rantin' preacher,
Pontificatin' from his pulpit aerie as his spiritual teacher!
He gits his religion from (to him) a more gratifyin' source,
Cherishin' God's Great Creation from the saddle of his horse!

He sits on a log contemplatin' the rigorous...

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(From My Novel 'Searching For Crazy Horse': Published 2011)

         Song From The Mountaintop 
Columbia Falls, Montana- September, 2003


The cry of an eagle floats across a distant peak
  bear tracks visible in the spring thawing snow

Sunlight, spreading...

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saguaros 
guardians of the sonora
a battalion wafting 
in one hundred degree heat 
standing sentry on granite slopes
vertical green etches
in carmel cliffs
literally--litter the foothills

rising up the mountain 
saguaros fall away

ocotillos remain
their leafy tentacles flailing
like upside down tarantulas
dotting the crevices and shelves
along with mexican oak

climbing higher
ocotillo give...

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Words of thoughts,
Thoughts of words,
And the walls that separate us,
Move aside as necessary.
Itineraries un-kept,
As un-kept yards that offer
Little shelter to the dogs
Beneath the ponderosa pine trees,
Swaying to the rhythms 
Of the wild and wandering winds,
Crossing mountains and desserts and seas,
Where sailors sing 
And send upon...

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A Trite Nihilistic Occasion   

This doodling Yankee 
(boot noah dandy) 
doth newt lack chutzpah, 
tries to finagle Fitbit 
fitting figurative footwear, 
that ideally Fitzhugh 
like custom made glove snugly, 
terrifically, unequivocally matching, 
thence handily solving Finger 
hut two three four issue, 
when or...

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If I may quote from Joyce Kilmer's poem "Trees" a line:
(His poem "Trees" is an all-time favorite verse of mine!)

"I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree!"
(I suppose there are few who with that lyric would disagree.)

A spreading sycamore with...

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The cry of an eagle floats across a distant peak
  bear tracks visible in the spring thawing snow

Sunlight, spreading its dance upon the land
  the Ponderosa Pine and Aspen in bloom

The glaciers look down smiling the higher you climb
  searching for that...

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