Chinook Poems

Well I say, I was glad to know ya
Before the earth goes super nova
I’m glad I got to Nova Scotia
Driving through Manitoba

Well I can say I had a good time
While the sun, ya she shines
Wineries and the finest wine 
Binding...Read More

Spring charges the air
I feel it; I swear.
A sense of touch that gets felt;
nature is waking
winter’s grip breaking
as snow and ice start to melt.

Geese are flocking north
calling songbirds forth.
Robin red-breasts lead the way;
followed by pink blooms
as trees don costumes
and Nature...Read More

A Little Boy’s gun with a barometric trigger,
showed a Fat Man how to
blot out an Empire’s rising sun.
Proliferation’s need pushed
Sellafield and Kyshtym to trip chasing Manhattan.
Twenty two years later and just
three miles south of Middleton,
failed safe assurances lied again and...Read More

Alaska, The Last Frontier

Alaska; the wilderness state, the last frontier:
Where majestic mountains, 
Deliver streams into flowing rivers: 
Down slopes covered in forests 
Of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock
That dominates the landscape.
The name Alaska originates 
From the Aleut word 'Aleyska,'
Meaning the...Read More

I like talking to you too much
the way you think and dream and dare
I like talking to you too much
drawn like a flame pulls in air

I like talking to you too much
your depth and passion and charm
I like talking to...Read More

If you stick your neck out for a friend, you’re likely to lose your head.
A friend is a potential enemy in disguise as a loving wife just before vowing ties.
Friends are of all kinds but the kind you want them...Read More

All we eat is elk meat, boiled elk, roasted elk, elk jerky
sometimes fried elk if we get bear or whale oil,
oh, and sometimes elk soup,
for four months we've subsisted exclusively on elk
except for occassional dog meat, candlefish or duck,
the elk...Read More

Fort Clatsop is up and true,
50 feet square, with a smokehouse, pallisades, barracks and two gateways
furnished from the aromatic and reliable wood of the great Fir trees,
we keep busy by scraping elk hides for clothes,  making moccasins,  hunting
and...Read More

The Columbia is a smooth beast that has introduced us to a semi tropic clime
that produces a bewildering humidity even for November
and a panoply of tree types that canopy the mossy turfs
from a sky that is often sullen,
the Flat Head...Read More

It arises out over the Pacific, sweeping east over Vancouver Island, down the Strait and up the Coast Range. Cooling now releasing moisture, as it flows over the first summit before warming as it drops, sucking moisture from the dry...Read More

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...Read More

COLLEVILLE  SUR  MER

In uneasy rest
He faces west.
They all face west to America  -
So far away from this beach,
So very far out of reach.

He no longer feels the chinook
Nor the glance of mother’s knowing eye
Over the range on...Read More

so this is where butterflies go to die
atop this burning ochre beach
amidst the palomino stones
party streamers 
chinook bones.
Chrysalis flutes swaying
beyond dunes, blue and gray
under a plush velvet shroud
they fold their powdery dreams
awaiting the pouty pallbearer tide 
toting emerald caskets, silver...Read More

I walk an already trodden path...
Uncertain, of future lives that lie ahead

But, in faith I close these earthly Ojibwa eyes
In trill, thus, I hear the old ways in your presence amidst Chinook winds
As harmonic they play across the plains, from...Read More

I turned away and faced the crashing white rapids. My
evergreen hunting dress whipped in the wind with my
copper hair.

I took a deep breath and jumped. I felt the spray
before the crushing force of the furious river of Ashtira .
I knew.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The...Read More

TWO FOR FEBRUARY

i’m crossing fingers
mild february thus far
blue skies    atlas smiles

blue bird on the wing
color against winter’s nap
harbinger of spring

Dave Austin

*inspired by “Chinook” – forgot the author




...Read More

Two rivers flowing; one is warm and pleasant like a chinook wind,
While the other is cold and swift and boulders roll with the current.
One we shall call the river of love, and the other, we shall call it the
River of...Read More

THAW     AT    CROWSNEST     PASS  

Huge mountains massed and  cliffs  sheer.  It’s  March
And endless  blue  sky  cold is held back by the...Read More

The old red barn seems to grow up through the dust and brown
Along the vague dirt road that mars the sage.....

The rhythm played by rain for wait of seeds, still echoes here
Erect and proud, it stands somber as the purple...Read More

Born in the mid west, a long time ago
in the sunflower state where the prairie grass grows
she would spend many days, sharing stories and dreams
Tho' my own feet have never been blessed to step near the place
I would watch as...Read More

War
Enlist list
Signed sheets
Quick and easy
It's all so cheesy

Come home soon, please
Chinook ride overseas
She sends a letter
I've felt better
Worthless

Mortars
Night raids
Humanitarian aid
A spade's a spade
All this just to get paid

Improvised Explosive Device
Repeating "love will suffice"
Injured soldier
Never colder
Scared

Firefight
White flags
Lines of sight
Bodies to drag
A...Read More

No lies to the heart she says only 
ties will do to the lonely, To
make a union of two hearts that makes 
a reunion of a feeling called love.

So lets rejoice and throw 
the doves to the wind 
and look...Read More

When the final Autumn leaf spirals to the ground,
and a warm Chinook breeze is no longer found.
Bears retreat to their seasonal slumber,
as snowflakes approach in abundant numbers.
Mother Nature steps down from her post.
As old man Winter prepares as new host.
A...Read More

We’ve called it names – 
Sirocco, Easterly, Chinook.
We’ve called it names
to match its devastating games.
Del Rio! how the tent-frame shook 
as, twirled on a Tornado’s hook,
we called its names.
...Read More

A
chinook
silently
melts the lying
snow...Read More