Today was good because:

-I have dirt under my fingernails; first time that counts this season.
-Sunshine and blue sky today (and predicted for tomorrow)
-It was the first day that I have sweat instead of shivered up here.
-I got the bright yellow GPS to work after days of frustration. The satellites were beaming down on me with love.
-I found a plant that I have never found before. I have not checked the herbarium yet.... it smells strongly of moth balls.) See the Rhododendron prinophyllum above. Smelled great, too, unlike the herbarium.
-I got a rare 'good job' pat on the back from my mentor Henry because of the Rhododendron prinophyllum. The plant people currently think I'm cool, which may not actually be regular-cool, but why don't YOU try to be cool with plant people. It's friggin' hard.

Orion

Orion, my heart is cold
Orion -- oh, stand still
Cease your trek across the sky
Before you and I grow old.

400 billion stars in the night and all I see are yours
Some scattered pattern among so many more.
The night-years between us
smother the sky black.
The moon pulls me, the Earth spins me,
but, ah! the stars know how to attract.

Orion, my heart is cold
Orion -- oh, stand still
Cease your trek across the sky
Before you and I grow old.

~Winter 2005

The Black Pine

While mama cried in her summer dress
I stood outside and watched the sky
The magnolia in the yard
The dog under the car
And sweet, sweet melons on the vine.

The sticky road floated by the house
I stood outside and watched the sky
The twisted tire swing
The bobwhite wondering
Shirts sagging on the clothesline.

Floorboards creak and ache
For a true love given freely
But all it does is take and take
Until we each pay dearly.

**

Daddy slammed the door to the sticky house
And stuck a thumb out on the summer road
The sky stayed hazy gray
Nary a breeze all day
One dove sighed in the black pine.

Floorboards creak and ache
for a true love given freely
But all it does is take and take
Until we each pay dearly.

**

The summer dress in the sticky house
Going nowhere on the deadpan road
Horizon heat waved goodbye
I stood and watched the sky
They say Daddy and Jesus'll come back sometime.

The furrows in the field and brow
The fickleness of men and rain
for what is meant by a vow
when no one stays the same?
No one stays the same...
No, nothin' stays the same.

Warm Spell

Warm spell in February,
The rain's a gonna come
The wind'll blow for me

Warm spell in February,
The ground is damp,
Now the frost may get the berry.

**

The year may go well, the year may go bad
But while the sunshine's on my face
Well, I'm still glad.

The year may go well, but it may be bad
But today I sang away
Because it's a good day that I had.

**

There ain't no frost on the glass
I can't see my breath
So who gives a damn if all the new buds freeze to death?

Warm spell in February,
The ground is damp
Now the frost may get the berry.

**

The sun's on my back
My arms are bare,
I'm kickin' stones down the street with nary a care.

Warm sun in February
What can I do?
A warm spell has come over me...

~written 2008

Impossibility

Impossibility, I like the word.
It makes me think of dandelion seeds blown to the wind,
game shows, and bedside prayers, and the land of never-never,
treasure hunts, and sweepstakes, and predicting the weather.

Impossibility, I like the word.
Makes me think of ebbing tides lost to the sea.
Dogs chasing cars, or the myth of Hollywood,
infinity, asymptotes, and achieving sainthood.

We're all dissatisfied imagining who we are.
You got faith? Well, close, but no cigar.
I'm not asking for facts or probabilities
Because I'm living proof that there's impossibility.

Impossibility, I like the word.
Makes me think of stones smoothed by wandering streams.
Big Bang theory, full comprension,
Don Quixote, and hell's good intentions.

I'm still reaching higher, I'm still reacher higher,
Lord, bring me higher, higher....

~2003