Thursday, December 26, 2019

Be an Angel


Sometimes,
When we least expect it,
A spark within a few,
Maybe me,
Maybe you,
Lights and glows
Ever so bright,
Compelling us
To open our heats
And do,
Do something kind.
Something sweet,
Something so amazingly neat
That patches a broken heart,
Brings a smile,
Connects someone
To another,
Or re-ignites
The spark of life
In the dying ember
Of a lost soul.
Sometimes
When we least expect it
We become angels, too.
Be an angel.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Beauty Floats on Falling Leaves

 Beauty floats on falling leaves.
Who glide, tumble,
Whirl, and swirl,
Gracefully, or haphazardly
On their journey
Off their trees.
Leaves harbor
Niether fret nor worry
As they transform
Their green garb
Into clothing of red,
Brown or gold,
For their final performance,
For their first flight
Into the unknown.
Beauty stays
As they age
And crinkle
On the ground.
Beauty resides on fallen leaves
Who whither and die
On the earth
Where they lie.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Standard Time

Standard time
Does not,
Cannot,
Will not
Exist.
Time is invisible,
Ethereal,
And illusory.
It flies in America.
It walks in Mexico.
It Marches in Germany.
Or so they claim.
But no one,
No two or three,
Not you nor me,
Have ever held
The reigns of time.
We all complain
That we have no time
For this or that.
And that's a fact.
For we cannot have
What does not exist.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

You Can't Ask a Lady


You can’t ask a lady
to reveal her age
Without risk,
Without offense,
Without being rude.
But the question isn’t crude.
It’s real and easily understood.
Why then do women think
That if they reveal their age
Something about them
Will sink and they will be
Less than,
Unworthy,
Undesirable,
And should be ignored.
It is a cruel rule,
A horrible yoke
Upon their shoulders.
No one has the authority
To issue the rule:
“Hide your age.”
Does the Crone
Have no value
In a Man’s world?
Who says
An older woman
Does not excite
Does not titillate
Does not arouse
The sexual hormones
In a man?
Why do women acquiesce?
And pretend
They are not the wise crone,
The experienced elder,
The women of knowledge,
And power?
When they were six
They were proud
They could read
And run faster than the boys.
They showed their license with pride
When they reached 21 years of age.
Men don’t conceal how old they are
When they are 30 or 40 of 50.
They are always
Desirable at any age.
At least to their way of thinking.
People tell me
I can’t ask a lady,
“How old are you?”
She will be offended.
Why?
Because she bought the line
Hook and sinker
That once she is past
Twenty-one
She is of no value.
That is ridiculous,
Obnoxious,
Sexist thinking.
When we devalue
Any aspect of who we are
We cheat ourselves
Of the cooperation,
The power
And the wisdom
Of half the human population.
We rob ourselves
Of the wisdom of the Crone..

Thursday, October 10, 2019

People Who Die Rip Us Off

People who die 
Rip of us off. 
They really do. 
Not intentionally, mind you. 
But their death, 
Their departure,
Our awareness of their absence, 
Robs us of their presence
Of their touch, 
Of their aroma. 
Death gets up in our face,
Nose to nose, 
To dare to declare 
That we, too, 
Shall surely die 
Someday.
There is no escaping,
No eliminating,
No having an immortal body.

Fear of our very own death 
Is hard-wired into our psyche. 
Grief buries itself in our muscles.
Therefore, we must
Talk grief out of our bodies, 
And out of our minds. 
Grief hides deep in our hearts. 
It desperately needs a voice 
To work its way out.
When we gag the mouth of grief
It chokes and rots deep within us. 
Grief then manifests 
In unsavory ways. 
It will bite every helping hand.
It will chomp,
And chew,
And spit out all joy,
While stomping on everyone 
Who would attempt 
To make us feel better. 
Our voice is a magic salve 
Use it
To squeeze out our grief 
A little bit at a time. 

Poets


Monday, September 23, 2019

The Hardship of Backpacking Is Temporary

Every now and then nearly everyone thinks about suicide. Life has its dark, downside. And it has it marvelous upside. Consider the fact that everything is temporary. When life really sucks, it is temporary. When life is so wonderful it just couldn't be any better, it is temporary. And because we flip back and forth, from pain to joy, we learn that we are strong and that even in the dark downside of life, we learn, and we widen our capacity for joy.
I'm a backpacker. Last week several of my buddies and I climbed up to Pear Lake in the Sequoia National Park. It was nearly a 3,000-foot climb from the trailhead. That sixth mile was so hard. My shoulders hurt from the backpack. My knees were biting me from the inside with each step. My lungs heaved and struggled for oxygen. And when we arrived at the top, stepped over the creek, and put our packs down at the campsite, my heart was glad. We made it. The lake was beautiful. The full moon crested over the rocky ridge. It was awesome. A couple of days later we descended the 3,000 feet. My shoulders hurt, my knees bit me from the inside and I didn't care. I was happy.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Mastodon at Pear Lake

I found this mastodon a few meters away from our tents at Pear Lake in the Sequoia National Forest. 

When we allow our imagination to flow free, it brings us gifts, some delightful, some hilarious, and sometimes, some are scary.

Arrogant Bastard


 Text message from Dirty Dog to Diego:

I had just finished unloading 98.2 pounds of groceries from the trunk of your car. I was so damn hot, my tongue was dragging on the ground getting all filthy and all. Damn, I stepped on my tongue and dam near fell and broke the eggs.  But I caught my balance in the nick of time.  My tongue hurt like a blazing hot anvil fell on it. I couldn't even call my sister to help me.

And then when I put the groceries on the table, did I get even a hint of gratitude with a simple, thanks Sweetheart? No! My sister was lounging on the couch drinking my Guinness, the only God forsaken Guinness left in the house.  It was the only damn beer in your house. I brought it to share with you. Honest. 

But would she offer me even the tiniest of sips? NO! She drank the whole glass, All of it.

"Here Little Brother. Put the glass in the dishwasher for me.  Will ya."

I stood there with my tongue dry and throbbing in pain. I really needed a beer to wet it good and sooth my pain. But do you know what my selfish sister said?  I can't believe it. 

"Oh Sweetheart, (I don't know why I listen to  her call me that. That's what she used to call me when she used to change my diapers.) Oh Sweetheart, she said, "put them groceries away.  I don't want to miss my soap opera."

I fixed her, alright. I put all 98.2 pounds of groceries in the freezer and walked down to Jerry's liquor store and bought me an ice cold six pack of Arrogant Bastard.

Oh. I need you to come to the Seal Beach jail and bail me out.  After that sixth Bastard I took all my clothes off and I jumped into the ocean. Well. It turned out to be a very small ocean. It was the public pool and they don't allow you to swim in your birthday suit.

And the bail is $500.oo.

Can you bring me a shirt and pants too.

Thanks,
Your brother-in-law, Dirty Dog.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

El Windigo





John reached into his backpack and pulled out a plastic bag of jerky. "Here," he said handing the man the entire bag. "How's this?" The man nodded but didn't say anything. Anthony offered him a dehydrated beef and broccoli package, but the man waved it off. The man gave the boys and slight bow and walked down the trail from where the boys had come. The man sang a song but they couldn't make out most of the words. They recognized the words, ...tonight I'm gonna be with you... and 





"Me, too," John said.
A couple of Forest Rangers stopped their truck where the dirt road intersected the PCT. The female driver got out of the truck as John and Anthony approached the road. "You look like you saw a ghost," she said to the boys.

Anthony told her about the guy they gave the jerky to. The ranger's eyebrows shot up. "Wow! You actually saw him and gave him something to eat?"

John was busy trying to decipher what the ranger was saying, while Anthony said, "He looked hungry."

"Have you guys heard of El Windigo?"

They shook their heads. "What's that?" John asked.

"Not what. Who," the ranger said. "As the legend goes, El Windigo was an Algonquin Indian who got lost in the woods and was starving. He was so hungry that he turned into a cannibal and would kill anyone he saw and eat them. But he never died. He walks the trails and asks people for food. If they give it to him, he lets them go. If they don't he waits until dark and kills them in their sleep. When they are found, parts of their bodies have been eaten. At first, those who found the bodies assumed that a bear or a puma had killed them. But when the coroner's reports came back, the bites were from a human."

John gave the ranger a nervous smile. "I don't believe in ghost stories. And if he's an Algonquin, he'd be on the East Coast anyway. "

The ranger paid no attention to what John said. She continued, "He shows up and resides wherever his name is said. And since some idiots named that mountain, Windigo Butte, he now lives here. There have been a few sightings but you two are the first I've met who actually talked to him and gave him some meat. I hope you aren't camping too close to Windigo Butte for the night."

"We still have a few hours of hiking north before we set up camp," Anthony said.

"Good. Stay safe," the ranger said. She got back into the truck and drove away.





"Oh! Don't go get weird on me now," John said.

John and Anthony hiked a total of 22 miles before setting up camp for the night. After John set up his tent, he fired up his camp stove to boil water to pour into his dehydrated fettucini Alfredo. Anthony stared at his beef and broccoli bag. He found a flat rock and set his stove on it. "That guy on the trail freaked me out," Anthony said. "What was he doing out here without a backpack?"
"He was probably some homeless guy who figured out that backpackers always have food," John said.
"His voice was creepy," Anthony said. "It was like his words had to climb over a dusty pile of loose rocks that were so sharp each one cut his throat as he talked."

John ate, and when he put his things back into the bear canister, he stopped, and stared at the bag of beef jerky sitting inside his bear canister. How did that get there? he wondered. He put the bear canister away from the tents. He opened his tent. "I'm so sleepy. We had a long day. Goodnight." He got into his sleeping back and fell asleep.
Just as dawn lifted the edge of  night's black skirt John yelled, "No!" He woke up in a cold sweat.

"Are you OK?" Anthony asked as he crawled out of his tent.

"Your snoring gave me a nightmare," John said as he crawled out of his own tent.

"My snoring doesn't cause nightmares," Anthonys said. "It causes wet dreams." He laughed. What time is it?"

"Too early," John said. "I had this nightmare that some creepy bald guy with grey skin and pointed teeth was eating your leg."

"My leg?" Anthony asked. "He would've gotten more to eat if he had gotten my stomach. It had food in it." He laughed again.













Click on the words Waltzing Matilda and Jersey Girl to hear the songs.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Crater Lake and Beyond

John and Anthony hiked along the western side of Crater Lake yesterday.Click here to see a short video of Crater Lake  The basin that eventually became Crater Lake formed when a 12,000-foot-tall volcano called Mount Mazama erupted and collapsed 7,700 years ago. The volcanic basin, called a caldera, eventually filled with water and became the lake that we know today. Bottoming out at 1,943 feet, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in America. Today the hiked 21 miles. When they woke up this morning, Anthony thought he smelled someone frying bacon. He wondered if John had been holding out on him. But when he opened his tent John was only making coffee. "Where's our next destination?" he asked. John pulled out his map and looked north. "It looks like it's beyond those mountains over there." 
"Really?" Anthony asked, "Steak and eggs, with potatoes and gravy, and a stack of pancakes sure would be good if we're going to hike all the way passed that mountain."



 They made it around Mt. Thielson and took a break. They put their packs down and John took the last bit of water out of his water bottle. "There's a nice stream over there," Anthony said pointing. John pulled out his water filter and walked toward the stream. He stopped short when he heard the rattle. Between him and the stream sat a snake shaking its rattle. "Catch me a tasty mousey and I'll move," John turned to see if Anthony had thrown his voice. But Anthony was busy pulling out a candy bar out of his pack. John turned to look at the snake. It hadn't moved. It rattled again. John decided that he wasn't that thirsty after all.

The boys hiked 21 miles and got some nice views of Diamond lake.
.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Ice Cream

26 July The boys backpacked 20 miles. Anthony sang the Lava song again. He tried unsuccessfully to get John to sing with him. He suggested one song after another, but John wouldn't sing along with Anthony. 
The following day they went 23 miles and almost made it to Crater lake. Just before they found a place to camp, they spotted a young couple walking toward them. Anthony stopped and waited for John to catch up. "Can you tell what they're eating?" he asked. 
John leaned his head forward and squinted. "They're eating ice cream cones," John said his eyes opened wide. Where do you ice cream cones in the backpacking in the Oregon mountains?"
"Did our GPS take us off the trail?" Anthony asked. They both checked their tracking devices. 
"No. We're on the trail." When they ran into the couple they asked where they got the ice cream cones.
"There was an ice cream truck parked in a parking lot where the highway intersects the trail," the young woman said. 
"The ice cream man was giving free ice cream to anyone carrying a backpack," the young man said.
 "The highway can't be far," Anthony said."Let's hurry." They picked up their pace and headed for the highway. But when they got there, no ice cream truck was in sight.
John looked at his tracker. "We've gone 23 miles today. Man-oh-man, an ice cream cone would've tasted so good."



Friday, July 26, 2019

Lava

"After yesterday's 22-mile hike, my feet are complaining," Anthony said as they reached Lake in the Woods highway 140.
"Stop whining," John said. "Are you hungry? I know I am. Hey! look. That must be the trail right there." John said pointing to the opening across the road."
Anthony pulled out his GPS. "There's a campsite not far from here," Anthony said. "We can eat there and if it's a nice place, I say we set up camp for the night."
"That's fine with me," John said. They didn't get very far before they heard kids voices and laughter. The walked in that direction. They reached the edge of a parking lot and saw a toilet. "I'm heading for the toilet. digging little poop holes in the forest is getting really old," Anthony said.
"I hope there's a freshwater spigot near that toilet," John said.
"Are you a PCT backpacker?" a little girl in pigtails asked John as he replenished their water containers."
John smiled. "Yes. How do you know about the PCT?"
The little girl, who looked like she was no older than ten said, "I did my first part of the PCT when I was seven. My daddy and my uncle took me with them to..." She put her finger to her lip and looked up. "To Mammoth Lakes and then we hiked on the PCT to Tool me. Not that's not it. To, to old me or something like that, I can't remember."
"Tuolumne Meadows?" Anthony asked.
""Yeah! That's it."
A man in shorts and hiking boots and a woman in shorts, a halter top, and tennis shoes walked up to the girl, Anthony, and John.  Two little girls followed them. The girl's father told John and Anthony that he had completed the whole trail when he was in college. He and his wife have been taking their daughter on segments of the PCT for the past three years.
"Tomorrow, Daddy and I are going to start and go to Crater Lake. It will take us five days.,"Her brown eyes opened up. "Daddy says it's fifty miles away. My mom will meet us there. She isn't coming with us this time." The girl leaned in close to John and Anthony. She narrowed her eyes as she whispered, "She's pregnant." And then her eyes lit up. "I'm going to be a big sister again."
"She tells everybody," the mother said. "You'd think that with all the fighting she does with her two little sisters, that she wouldn't be as excited." They all laughed.
"We always start a hiking trip with a steak dinner," the mother said. "We have far more than we can eat. Why don't you join us?"
"Thank you," Anthony said,
"Yeah, thanks. That sure beats any dehydrated meal," John said.
They thanked their hosts and hiked a little further until Anthony spotted a place to set up camp. "I'm so full and that steak was so good," he said as he put his backpack down.

The following morning John took a photo of Mt Mcloughlin.
"I wonder how big that mountain was before it blew its top," Anthony said. "This lava field goes on forever."
Yeah. I'm glad they have a well-maintained trail cutting through it," John said.
Anthony broke into song, "A long, long time ago there was a volcano living all alone in the middle of the sea."
Click the link to hear the Lava song that Anthony sang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh4dTLJ9q9o








Wednesday, July 24, 2019

South Brown Shelter

Anthony looked at his GPS and said, "It looks like we should be near the shelter. According to this note, it is a log cabin."
"We've already hiked 22 miles and my feet are killing me," John said. "I hope we won't have to set up our tents."
"We won't have to worry about pumas or bears preying on us at night," Anthony said.
"But what if the bears know that campers leave food here?" John asked. "What if they wait for us in the morning and when they don't find food, they chase after us?"
"I don't see that as a problem, John. I can outrun you when the bears chase us," Anthony said and laughed.
 There was still plenty of light when the boys arrived at the shelter. "That door isn't going to keep a bear out," Anthony said.
"Neither are our tents," John said. "At least this has a solid roof in case it rains."
"A fireplace and firewood!" Anthony yelled when he looked inside.
"Yeah! and a place off the floor to put out sleeping bags," John said.
Anthony pulled out his knife and scrapped some kindling to start a fire in the wood-burning stove. "This reminds me of when we were little and we lived in Duranes, in Albuquerque."
"How is that possible? You were only about 3 or 4 when you moved from there." John said.
"I know," Anthonys said. "But I do remember putting wood in the stove when I was little."
The boys boiled water and pulled out their packets of dried food. They set up their sleeping bags on the wide shelves along the walls. While they waited for their food to re-hydrate in the packets, they stepped outside. "Hey! we can eat on a real table tonight," John said.
When their food was re-hydrated and ready to eat they sat at the table. "Boy a nice cold Sapporo would taste real good right now," John said.