Long Yosemite Poems

A Commentary on

"A Note on the [Patriarchal-Colonizing] Treatment
of Plant Names"
by Robin Wall Kimmerer, p. 385
BRAIDING SWEETGRASS:
INDIGENOUS WISDOM,
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE,
AND THE [SACRED] TEACHINGS
OF PLANTS

I too often accept
with nary a LeftBrain dominant thought
that our verbalized labels
for individual EgoPersons
are...

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American Pies and Porkies

I’m not American though I spent a year in California the land of beaches Hollywood 
‘flower power’ ‘Big Sur’ with dopey dreams and have walked ‘bear’-foot in Yosemite
thus I followed the elections...

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In the manse market for a preowned spa house

Mine feeble efforts pale in comparison
to a kid scaling El Capitan
of Yosemite National Park,
nevertheless me, a dry witted husband
self emasculated milquetoast
of late ofttimes yawps imprecations
against fickle finger...

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A winding road, up through the trees, finds California gold
The heart will race, and breath escapes, to see this land unfold!

Dad cherished, this, his boyhood home, a wonderland to view
and shared with us the years...

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ABC Animal Twist

Adored and diverse, life thrives on earth; each day nature sees new births.
Big and small, abundantly in seas and trees; great beauty breathes.
Chameleons, cats, corn snakes, and coots, survive great threats in life's...

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When I was younger i was taught to believe in god
Now i wonder if i misunderstood, Whether it was all a mirage
Baptized in holy water so the father could give a trial by fire
Suicidal thoughts...

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Way back, September, sixty-three
                               ...

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That's-That's-That's All Folks
By Roy Merritt

There’s a little guy ‘round here 
with a red mustache three feet long
And there’s no one about it seems 
with which he gets along

He’s always angry it seems 
and often pullin’...

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Alone, I camp below Cathedral Peak – 

God, I know you’re not whom we say you are
and you should have a good case for slander –
What fantastic tales we tell about you; 
I wonder if...

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The year is 2025
I have come back to my past
To witness the Mayans
Who said Earth would not last

2012
Was the year they declared
That the planet we knew
Could never be spared

An Asteroid shower
We could never comprehend 
Sends...

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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...

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

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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...

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(Poem included in the Poems of Yosemite chapbook.)

Ineffable – 
Still, I write these lines
                     ...

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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...

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Once upon a time, my life was on track
Moving onward, achieving all my goals
Revered by my peers, their pats on my back
They praised my advice and said it was gold

Its was nice that they cared...

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Somedays I feel like a female
Bugs Bunny, 
saying "whats up doc" while
confident and cool,
while other days more like a
girl Daffy Duck, 
feeling more like a tongue twisting fool,
while out shopping I feel like
an Elmer Fay...

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What began as a vanity-premised venture 
An antihero adventure 
Around the globe, chasing splendor 
Avenging for adolescent abstinence 

Peering behind my translucent facade 
Peacocking my pride as a pretender 
Only to end up indentured 

Brush...

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the blue jays waited 
on the camp bench this afternoon
for you to feed them,

you ignoring me
cost them too,
they wept all day through.

we came to Yosemite 
for you
to find resolution
was it in an alleyway 
	or the...

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Ethereal, fleeting, incandescent
I grasp loosely at the airiness
So vibrant on the escarpment
X-rays pass through bone and flesh
Leaving no mark
I hold emptiness

Where are the diamonds?
Filling my fingertips?
Brushing my lips?
Tickling my tongue?
Lingering within my heart?
Eternity breaks open
Inverting...

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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...

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July 1983, another phone call after midnight, 
another long drive, your Shepherd-dog head 
in my lap. How many people got lost that summer!

Late March 1986, by flashlight on dirt paths 
of The Divide. Mine shafts...

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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...

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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...

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I was a nascent virgin stream
Born to glabrous mountain king
On the unflinching love his dream
The dark damsel of sky he fling.

On her rapture and cry I grown
Broken the rules with fickle friends
Freely flown as my...

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