1.
fell from the night sky
dripping on the sidewalk green
Palouse morning light
Palouse Sky, #106
Nature Life
Intimate details in nature
Sixty, #105
hardened, sixty years
heart quivers tending gardens
water’s moon ripples
a break in silence
pop! morning sun in cracked skin
a break in sound
under Sitka Spruce
look! who stops to look at whom?
under Sitka Spruce
The June Gallery is now online with additional photographs from the month at home, Castle Rock State Park, Hiking in the Columbia River Gorge and on the Coast. Please enjoy! (Clicking the link above will open a new browser window)
Tierra Del Mar – Portraits, #104
Water falls, #103
1.0
Melissa and I recently traveled to the Oregon Coast to spend a week with family at Tierra Del Mar (which in English translates to Land of the Ocean). The first night we stayed in Biggs Junction. On day two we stopped for a hike in the Columbia River Gorge. We hiked a five mile loop visiting many waterfalls and parts of the 2017 Eagle Creek fire.
I had driven through the Gorge on I-84 a few times since the fire. However, it was not until this trip on our drive home (we took Washington State Highway 14 which follows the north side of the Columbia River) that I was able to take in the immensity of the fire.
I wondered if I behave this way toward our natural resources and climate change? I hike (drive) in water daily: washing my face, making tea, cooking, showering, watering the garden. I use water, but do I see the immensity of my use? Do I realize how precious water is to my physical existence, allowing me to think, feel, and love?
I recall a Thich Nhat Hanh gatha I first noticed in Spanish. I know a few Spanish words and in this writing, agua, Tierra, and gratitud, caught my attention. I found the gatha later in Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, peace is every breath: a practice for our busy lives:
“Water Flows from high mountain sources.
Water runs deep in the Earth.
Miraculously, water comes to us.
I am filled with gratitude.” [1]
2.
Spilling in my hands
water’s sparkling gemstones
I splash sleepy eyes
In a mist of blue
above green waves of sea-foam
charred water falls
3.
Photo Gallery: Water Falls -Columbia River gorge.
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[1] – Thich Nhat Hanh, peace is every breath, (HarperOne; Reprint Kindle edition, 2011), pg. 12
Love-in-a-mist, #100
Looking… she pauses
at the edge of the driveway
in the morning rain
Left, Right, #99
Cavernous Weathering, #98
Light in pinhole gaps
water and winds swirl and seep
carving stone shadows
No Rain, Water, #97
1.0
Once frothy white noise
today cracking dry whitecaps
drifting clouds no rain
2.0
Fading green patches
dry grasses stretch across fields
not yet summertime
3.0
Shaped by the water,
grounded and smoothed, dry river
under my bare feet
Spring Valley, #96
1.
When he took me, the two-track was hardly visible. The grass was bending over the hood, as high as the windows of the Rambler. The shore was a rich dark brown scattered with white stones.
When I took her, the grasses were short and faded covered in dust from the gravel road. On our walk down the trail 1 collect discarded bottles, cans, wrappers, and bait containers, putting them a the bag that once held our sandwiches. The shore is ground to a fine dust.
Quiet.
“Pop,” the opening of a can echoes, loud voices follow.
She turns and says, “It’s okay Pops.”
Glassy lake surface
Splash! fish clutched-Osprey talons
Glassy lake surface
2.
3.
Waking from a daze
dreamt I was a soaring bird
as I fly away
6th and Elm, #95
Through the cracks-
green sprouts in the heart
of this old skin suit