YOSEMITE HAIKU
by
Suzanne Weller
Lake Tahoe fell in
Owens Valley is a graben
Not Yosemite
A Harvard scholar
And a Scottish sheepherder
Thought differently
Cataclysmic falls
Are sort of rare in nature
Like Adam and Eve
One chose the apple
The one taken from his rib
A swift fall from grace
Listen with your heart
You will hear the waterfall
Falling from heaven
Graceful waterfall
Didn’t fall from the heavens
But from God’s mountains
What is natural
And flowing and beautiful
Uncataclysmic
You will see the smile
On the face of Tissiack
It’s made of lichen
Half Dome was never
Whole but is peeling off slow
A fractured onion
Earthquakes are sudden
Rockslides and volcanos, too
Everything takes time
The raven’s call and
The spiritual waterfall
Voices of silence
It’s the inner voice
People need to hear daily
All the rest is noise
To write poetry
You must listen to the sound
Of wind in the trees
Two ravens calling
Conversing with each other
Then they disappear
Musical poems
Are based on how you listen
And also feelings
Yosemite falls
Sound like ocean waves breaking
The tide rushing in
**
The landscape changes
A hundred million years can
Make a big difference
The Farollon plate
Was making waves and mountains
And causing uplift
The low rolling hills
The meandering Merced
Met that mighty mass
Volcanos were born
And magma cooled in chambers
Making minerals
Quartz is the hardest
Forming granite monoliths
Like El Capitan
As the land rose up
The Merced carved a V-shaped
Valley of granite
Did someone you love
ever make an impression
Like that on your heart?
Slowly and surely
Eroding away your last
Final resistance
Magmatic chambers
Filled with pulsing memories
Hot molten lava
Then came the glaciers
Carving and plucking away
Making love deeper
Adam and Eve fled
From the Garden of Eden
Into wilderness
Deep dark foreboding
Filled with monsters, bear and snakes
She ate the apple
But Romantics
Changed the nature of nature
Warm colors emerge
Bierstadt, Hill and Ayres
Paintings of Yosemite
Seen from Tunnel View
Campfire welcoming
Beneath dark foreboding walls
Dark storm clouds above
**
June 6, 2011
“I think that I shall never see
A thing as lovely as a tree“ Julia recited this first verse she had memorized at Indian boarding school
The Awaneechees
Yosemite Indians
In valley of grass
Creation stories
Froggy rolls up a mud ball
And it becomes earth
Animal people
Coyote, raven and bear
Family and friends
The bears follow paths
Which are only known by bears
And the Indians
Mock orange arrows
Obsidian arrowheads
Hunters and killers
Only men could kill
Because women create life
And nurture children
Acorn granaries
Keep the acorns dry and safe
They can last ten years
The shell is then cracked
With a rock and ground up fine
Pestels in mortars
Tannic acid leached
To remove the bitter taste
Before making mush
Baskets woven tight
Inside the mush is boiling
Treated by hot rocks
Sandy mound is made
Water poured through cedar branch
To purify flour
Four stages of life
Infants, children, adults,
Most importantly elders
Big circle dances
Circling to drum rhythms
Called the friendship dance
Inside the roundhouse
People enter to the right
And circle around
Four posts made of oak
Support incense cedar logs
Fire pit in middle
Entrance faces east
Direction of rising sun
Exit to the west
Drum of hollow oak
Incense cedar post pounds rythm
Julia drummer
Childrens’ song is sung
Death ceremony described
Always cremated
Clothing articles
Held up high with special song
Always ends at dawn
Entrance must be clear
So spirit can circulate
Inside the roundhouse
~ ~ ~ ~
snowy sierra
nevada the range of light
beauty luminous
ponderosa pine
clusters of 3 needles are
yellow like a y
gentle Jeffreys too
sweet vanilla puzzle bark
prefer altitude
mariposa grove
elusive butterfly wings
grace the golden light
spring is a time when
people want to see water
falls and flowing streams
showy milkwood blooms
wild white azalea flowers
breathe their sweet perfumes
loveliness in youth
in age forever changing
loving life renews
trees of poetry
breathing in and breathing out
oxygen and dreams
solitary bird
singing in an apple tree
singing without words
Half Dome in the fog
granite with a snowy top
looking out above
by the green Merced
painting people on a bridge
orange blue and red
watercolors wet
colors mixing by themselves
always leave some white
winter winding down
days becoming longer now
nights remaining cold
chilly breezes still
feeling like an arctic blast
at the Lower Fall
in Yosemite
Olmsted first then Johnny Muir
make their visions seen
dipper dipping down
under water ouseling
through the waterfall
mossy igloo house
little doorway gaping mouths
waiting to be fed
caterpillar clown
munching showy milkweed leaves
redwinged blackbird dives
plate tectonics make
Wegner's theory factual
earthen layer cake
American subducts
Pacific plate beneath it
pushing mountains up
rivers carving down
ancient v-shaped chasms make
places ice will round
tender snowflakes fall
feet of snow accumulate
making glaciers grow
tons and tons of ice
carving granite like a knife
vertical rock walls
sleeping on a ledge
sunnyside below the falls
swimming in cascades
climbing an ice cone
just below a ledge of ferns
time to be alone
II. TUOLOMNE
The two bridges that cross Lyell Creek are oriental in their simplicity and symmetry. With Cathedral and Unicorn Peaks in the back ground the scenery resembles an Obata painting. Pollen filled catkins cover Lodgepole pine branches pollinating the air and tiny red newly forming cones. More mature cones above bear seeds that are carried by the wind. Pine trees are hermaphrodites. Pollen is produced by the male cone or catkin. The wind blows it into the female cones that bear seeds
from wintry snow avalanche country
into a flowery subalpine paradise
above Lyell creek
Cathedral and Unicorn
high Sierra peaks
catkins pollinate
newly forming lodgepole cones
pine trees procreate
nature emulates
blues and golds and aqua greens
watercolor scenes
mountain penstemon
prideful purple violet
lives in granite cracks
Pothole Dome is home
to Lodgepole pines in granite
in cracks where soil is
glacial polish scratched
like an arrow indicates
movement in the past
panoramic views
Mt. Conness and Matterhorn
peaks are in the north
Kuna Crest is east
Mt. Gibbs, Dana, Mammoth Peak
metamorphic red
Mt. Hoffman is west
Fairview Dome Tenaya Lake
somewhere on the left
III. MIWOK INDIAN
Awaneeche man
fighting like a grizzly bear
for a Miwok maid
black and shiny hair
flowing down beyond her waist
only for her brave
incense cedar bark
makes an ark an anchorage
fire warms the dark
spice bush arrow shaft
with an obsidian point
flies straight true like you
mock orange smells sweet
when hunting hits the target
sweat lodge feel the heat
safe from squirrels woodpeckers
miwok bravery
flutes and clapper sticks
making music after dark
bullroar is singing
willow and red bud
woven into baskets and
new baby cradles
granite rock pestels
pounding acorns into mush
only for women
indian bark house
families sleep on leaves and skins
fire in the winter
Awahnee village
awahneeche living in
gaping mouth valley
