Going, going . . .

The view of the west meadow from the porch this morning. 

The aspens have turned to gold and the maple leaves are falling even faster everywhere..

And it didn't rain all afternoon!

Absentee ballots came today from California and we did the voting thing.

The ballots are so heavy that it cost 91cents for each of us to send them back.

Tonight's poem is from a personal friend of mine, Gayle Kaune, who moved away a long time ago and I have not seen for ages.

The Explorer dreams of Sacajawea

soon he would be calling

her name the name the ghost

birds that fly south would speak

her name as they write his longing

across the shoulder of her blue

sky as river enters the heart

of her country it was all light

it seemed

and even shadow

had a geometry

that was pleasing

love and birds

are what kept him going small flutterings

in the grassy space of his mind

large migrations in the path

of his heart oh it was true

sometimes he knew that like

water he was more in touch

with longing than arrival

Gayle Kaune

All the Birds Awake, 

Tebot Bach, Huntington Beach CA, 2011, page 31.

Look! No stanza breaks, no capitals or punctuation, yet we follow the mind through the poem.

Note particulary the strategy of the longest line with its two parts, that just kept on going without stopping there. It is a rich book and well worth getting.

Same view a few days ago; look for the small conical pine in the center to orient yourself.