Tag: nature

Looking back

Sometimes I find my eye lingering
On the path I’ve already travelled

I remind myself

Look forward
Or risk running aground

I saw the Earth
Photographed from space
And was startled
By the whisper-thin atmosphere

I live on a smooth
Round globe
Of rock and water
With just a thin veneer of gas

It always surprises me
That the tenacity
And virility
Of life in the desert
Surprises me

But I shrug
And think to myself
Life itself
Is a surprise
Which always surprises me

Perhaps
All that glitters
Is not gold

But I recline
Beneath a golden sky
Above a glittering sea

And therein lies
The greatest wealth
I’ll ever need

On a sunny day
Under a crisp blue sky
Snow-capped mountains
Across the turquoise sea

Exquisite beauty

But I prefer the mystery

A ride
A ride
A beautiful ride
On a sunny crisp
Sunday afternoon

Up the hill
And through the woods
Round corners
Through the trees
Over roots and rocks

Desert shadows and silhouettes
Hazy sky and spectral highlights
Joshua, Tree of Life
Standing tall and lordly

Over this world
Of heat and sorrow
Which takes so much
Then leaves so little

In the desert lands
All gravel stone and sand
But for the cholla
In her prickly shrine

When night falls
And the first stars
Begin to twinkle
In the darkening sky

I am reminded
Earth is a very small place
And I
I am a very small man

Sometimes
The chasm between
You and I
Seems so deep
Seems so wide

I cannot see
Into the depths
I cannot see
The other side