Dark-Eyed Junco

 

tickering, skittish

then purling to trees   tiny with trills

hilo de agua…

kew!   indigenous knowledge   pale bluish

or greenish egg   compact

nest of rootlets

Greet me Bees rats

We’ve been called in to the visible world

We’ve been called in

Sombrita

de fieltro

chalice of petals

Two birds are lost in my breast   loose trill

lined with grasses or hair

parallel knowledge

flash in flight   Aire voluto…

And the waves my only treasure

va y va

- Marcia Casey

Marcia Casey lives in Wilson and teaches poetry workshops at C-V Ranch. This poem is a “cento” composed of lines gleaned from field guides, poetry, texts on ethno-ornithology, and first-hand observation.

 

Tidal Locking

We know the trepidation of the spheres

and distances measured in beams.  How near

does each arm of Donne’s compass

reach, like spider filament for a truss,

spinning across a growing galaxy?

We orbit the blackness by degrees,

our stuck faces, like Charon and Pluto

stretched beyond a desperate sostenuto,

searching for how to agree

on our topography.

- Diana Smith

This poem originally appeared in the Spring 2011 volume of the Jackson Hole Review.

Counting Wild Horses

The most efficient way

to count

wild horses

is helicopter flights—the great

speed and whir

of blades in air drives

mustangs from the brush

We count them

three piebald

seven chestnut

two roan

all grey with dust of the plain

Over the low thrum

of the heli comes

the rumble

of hooves black

cracked from shifting rocks

and shale

They gallop towards the ravine

below them, the river

Just when it seems

we will lose them all

they peel from the brink

manes swirling

like plover wings

over salt-damp sand

- Jenny Minniti-Shippey

Jenny Mininiti-Shippey is the managing editor of Poetry International and a professor at San Diego State University. This poem was featured in the Jackson Hole Review, Spring 2011.

 

WiseBark: a Cambium Incantation

WhiteBark Matriarch

Old Growth Patriarch

Enter our Mind Field now

Old Growth Matriarch

WhiteBark Partriarch

Engage our Mind Field now

Like Pelican    Elephant    Whale

            Keepers of the Records of Time

Beings of eternal wisdom

            The WhiteBarks are part of this tribe

With twisting twirl and spiral dance

           What history You have seen

Lacquered in lichen    torched by lightning

           Such eternity links every cell

Perched by birds    scared by fires

           Scratched by claws of great Bear

You awaken within us    lessons remembered

          Constellated in your wise bark core

Entwined           intertwined

          Your sweet nuts caviar for carnivores

Cambrian wisdom       ancient and kind

          Resides in your cambium core

WhiteBark Matriarch

Old Growth Patriarch

Enter our Heart Mind now

Old Growth Matriarch

WhiteBark Partriarch

Engage our Heart Mind now

- Lyn Dalebout


Lyn Dalebout is a poet, educator, sidereal astrologer, and 30+ year resident of Grand Teton National Park.