Best Yosemite Poems

gentle flakes drift down
   to soften the valley floors
      while lacing the trees
         with the silent retelling
             of...

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IN THE VALLEY OF YOSEMITE

Today, as I took a walk through,
The valley of Yosemite, such
A beauty that lies within 
The rocks, trails, and the falls

There is a place where
Clear blue sky's embrace
Where the trees are tall
And are rooted within rocks

As I lift my head ...

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One of the best things about living in Yosemite, is the miles and miles of trails. I love to hike. Since I've been in Yosemite I have always hiked by myself. It clears my mind and helps me understand and get in touch with my...

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Carved by the hand of God you are
              awesome, heavenly, take my breath 
              away, Yosemite.
   ...

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A glazed view, as through a glass that magnifies
Between the granite banded with blue and umber
Cruel paths of glacier, ancient swords of hunger
Deeply carved a threshold one can hardly grasp
Each turn of compass, leaves a gasp
Forever brings our talking to a halt
Green rivers whipped to...

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Yosemite’s huge boulders
Sliced in two in the Ice Age
Half Dome and El Capitan
Both carved by a sheet of ice, a glacier

Peering down from the mountains
Buttercups grace the valley
Where deer come to graze at dusk
Worlds of wonder wait at national parks


*A Parise Pariku for Rick’s contest.
Written...

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In summer she thunders majestically
her splendor spewing power soaked
sound waves of security cross the valley
and trails where tourists are cloaked
in  her confident comforting mist.

In winter she quick silently retreats
to the mountaintop peaks of surrealist
chill hibernation eerily replete
with mankindness's self-interested
profit motive doused in froze song.

In...

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Yosemite 

Frozen precipice.
Just around the bend…watching.
The white valley rests.
Glistened by the noonday sun.
Famous mountain waters fall.

© August 5, 2010
Dane Smith-Johnsen...

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no litter in tents

    scuffle --- frost night long --- rustle

          mouse feasts  we listen...

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Valley, I could ever make you my camp.
Stream is rapid, flowing so cool by here.
Night's tent-light comes by our kerosene lamp.
I have stove and skillet frying steaks sear.
Little use, Jim, watching close for tame deer.
Better open eyes for hungry wild bears.
We can eat chuck downing...

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Bugs Bunny 
Was smart, witty and funny
His tag line was what’s up, doc
Rivals would just stare and gaulk

Yosemite Sam
Made bugs and his buddies scram
Dubbed them all as mere varmints 
He had a keen eye to their footprints









09/01/2021
Contest: Cleritoons
Sponsor:Joseph May...

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Yosemite’s Ephemeral Autumn Falls

Bald giants of swift water smoothed pale granite
Mark deep clefts for tumbling summer snowmelt
Rush released from frozen streams once frostbit
Silver swells - Ribbon Falls in pure ice melt -
Ephemeral streams slowed beneath Orion’s belt.

Thin tulle mist from autumn’s gossamer Bridal Veil
Flutters, bathing...

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CAMP 4

‘If I die, I die.’

The realness of those words
sent a shiver down my spine
as I listened to the climbers.
It was late autumn, 1969.
There was a pause after his words
and each face made the slightest nod
peering deeply into the flames;
Tom Bauman had just soloed the...

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(Poem included in the Poems of Yosemite chapbook.)

Ineffable – 
Still, I write these lines
                          trite.
A scaffold of words
which whence removed...

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Right foot into this little dimple that you can toe in on aggressively so it’s opposing the left hand, then you can, like, zag over across to this flat, down-pulling crimp that’s small but you can bite it.
[From Honnold’s climbing notebook.]

For me, the most transcendental...

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