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YOSEMITE POETRY --- Summer 2006
by
Suzanne Weller
© 2006 Suzanne Weller
Click here for YOSEMITE HAIKU
Live Yosemite Camera
BIG TREES
big trees are sublime
living for three thousand years
sequoia divine
count their age in rings
drought years make them skinnier
fires will make them black
young trees grow up tall
older trees get wider too
just like people do
cones stay on the tree
twenty thirty forty years
teeny tiny seeds
seeds need soil to grow
not the leafy underbrush
and plenty of sun
million years ago
big trees grew in Nevada
in basin and range
soft and spongy bark
protects from the elements
fire can’t reach the sap
***
window with a view
green leaves ponderosa pine
Half Dome in the sun
mountain air to breathe
water fresh to drink and taste
sunlight streaming in
***
moonbeams in darkness
cast shimmering veils of light
over granite rocks
the trail leads onward
towards booming Yosemite
Falls like a freight train
the forest shadows
no longer green are black and
grey and in between
the singing bullfrog
is really tuning his bass
for an orchestra
the moon will be full
the evening star rapidly
rising in the east
***
Highway 49
Sonora Mokolumne
Nevada City
Sutter’s Creek and Cool
rivers running mightily
Jackson Angel’s Camp
twisting turning through
foothills of the gold Country
it’s New Heveltia
like in Switzerland
cows are grazing lazily
in the fields of green
Calaveras Grove
flourishing above Arnold
imaginary
***
Pavel’s piano
playing Chopin melodies
making music sing
***
Sonnet for Yosemite Falls
the comet stars are soaring into space
the whiteness of the water fall’s embrace
and from the rocky in between cascade
the lean and mighty lower falls is made
Yosemite is where the water roars
from the cliffs it tumbles to the floor
and takes a course that’s not industrial
but natural it flows from nature’s core
and sounding like a racing car but yet
its engine must be stronger than a jet
accelerating gusts of blasting wind
make the mountains rumble in the din
“what’s the hurry?” ask the one above
the driving force behind the scene is love
***
Mirror Lake in June
children splashing in water
beneath waterfall
Tenaya Canyon
granite domes u-shaped valley
not carved by glaciers?
two bridges cross creeks
at the head of the canyon
the trail loops around
place to botanize
prehistoric plant gardens
sheltered by the walls
sumi ink lichens
etch the royal rock arches
paintings by nature
wilderness permits
needed in the wilderness
pack it in and out
the trail to the left
up the steep canyon walls turns
strenuous switchbacks
then Lake Tenaya
Tuolumne beyond it
high country treasures
remember no fires
above 9000 feet of
alpine altitude
stables to the right
mule trains under Half Dome
sure footed donkeys
if you continue
up beyond the two bridges
there are Hidden Falls
off trail adventures
can often be dangerous
people can stumble
slippery rock slabs
fifty foot cliffs drop down
rocky creek bottom
if you slip and fall
will anybody hear you
calling for someone?
a whistle might work
and voices always echo
if somebody’s there
can you make it back
to Happy Isles in springtime
and white dogflowers?
summer is melting
High Sierra snowpack and
draining alpine lakes
where Wolfy wanders
Ililouette Canyon calls
alpen-glow spirits
all that is needed
are teabags and French pastries
for hungry bears
I can imagine
all these wonderful places
are infinite
what really matters
is your ability to
escape the cities
whether Bakersfield
London or Los Angeles
urban crawling sprawl
only mountain air
can purify the toxic
build-up in your lungs
Cathedral Spires
across from El Capitan
their presence is felt
Three Brothers ahead
the late afternoon sunshine
makes everything warm
how can you not feel
enthusiastic about
Nature’s creation?
a cool valley breeze
a little frog is jumping
alive and happy
red-winged blackbird flies
across a milkweed meadow
startled by my steps
July is still spring
flowers blooming birds singing
meadow grass blowing
the meadow boardwalk
like a pier in the ocean
feet on wooden planks
meadows untrampled
are meadows left to flourish
delicate untouched
tender tendrils too
mule deer does and bucks feasting
on tasty morsels
painting clouds and rocks
waterfall and forest trees
cool shades into warm
add yellow to blue
and red to make nature’s green
not viridian
Awahnee awnings
artificial green is not
a good example
discussing Van Gogh
another self-taught master
Abraham Lincoln
a bear is swimming
across sierra snow-melt
in early summer
powerful muscles
propel him through green water
just taking a dip
it’s time for dinner
maybe some fish or berries
on the other side
his own survival
depends on his hunting skills
and bear cannisters
cars and bear boxes
metal refrigerators
are food containers
in cans, bags, bottles
are cookies potato chips
cake and soda pop
Tuolumne Lodge
tent cabins and a kitchen
cars in parking lot
take the John Muir trail
two oriental bridges
over Lyell Creek
after the mule train
crosses with clattering hoofs
I step across
Tuolumne Grill
there awaits a clean restroom
cheeseburger combo and juice
***
Tenaya Canyon
peleated woodpeckers
hiding in the trees
yellow monkey flowers
tickle them and they will close
like Venus Flytraps
equesineum
bracken ferns are remnants of
tropical jungles
beautiful ginger
incense cedar douglas fir
white fir and black oak
snow creek waterfall
Hidden Falls and granite slabs
slippery when wet
ponderosa pine
prickly when you touch their cones
jigsaw puzzle bark
like a yellow pine
clusters of three needles make
yellow with a y
Chief Tenaya’s curse
echoing in falling rocks
and El Nino floods
Mirror Lake reflects
Mt. Watkins and Piwiack
skaters from the past
and the altar rock
like a celtic monolith
for a christian mass
Happy Isles rock slide
hundred fifty miles per hour
winds blew trees down flat
Half Dome granite rocks
tumbling and crashing down
leave behind white streaks
the diving board is
on Half Dome’s lower shoulder
not on northwest face
Awaneeche lore
says five hundred moons ago
rocks began to fall
near El Capitan
boulders brought from Cathedral
dropped off by the ice
Lamon apple trees
make a feast for hungry bears
and a place to climb
red american
robin sitting on a log
with a yellow beak
Curry Village truck
filled with plastic garbage bags
a raven digs in
grasses sedges reeds
sedges have edges unlike
round reeds and long grass
tuolumne grass
used to be seven feet high
before hoofed locusts
an arctic tundra
in an alpine location
in California
five juvenile ducks
the green head will come later
they’re mallards of course
lichens make rocks black
slowly in a hundred years
the white will be gone
merganser ducks float
in rapid river rapids
buoyant hollow bones
Yosemite Falls
through my window a picture
upper falls only
Tuolumne rock
sits in the river Merced
knobby erratic
glacial evidence
in Yosemite Valley
is everywhere
terminal moraine
just beneath El Capitan
and Bridalveil Falls
medial morraine
between Tenaya Canyon
and Merced Canyon
hanging valleys are
places where ice rivers cut
them off from the side
Yosemite Lake
filled in with silt and became
a grassy meadow
Indian folklore
is present in the rocks
and in the waterfalls
Half dome is also
Tissiack a weeping maid
can you see her face
and El Capitan
is measured by an inchworm
looking for two cubs
mist of Pohono
a magical matchmaker
marriage minded wind
Awaneeche means
people of the gaping mouth
for five thousand years
grizzly bear killers
oso matar in Spanish
is Yosemite
El Capitan’s nose
is prominantly displayed
he has a heart, too
Inspiration Point
is just above tunnel view
on the stagecoach road
in the afternoon
Bridalveil has a rainbow
colorful water
the creek tumbles down
and delicate wisps of lace
blow in the sunshine
the smooth arch-shaped rock
looks like a flying buttress
gothic cathedral
thunderclouds floating
over Cloud’s Rest and Half Dome
beyond the valley
Taft and Roosevelt
are both presidents who camped
in Yosemite
for the Indians
the Three Brothers were three frogs
crouched ready to jump
the Cathedral Rocks
have tall graceful gothic spires
Notre Dame Paris
natural firefall
February’s Ribbon Falls
fiery sunset
there’s nothing to see
except rocks waterfalls trees
beautiful flowers
go back to Fresno
air-conditioned theaters
parked cars, shopping malls
if your eyes can’t see
you won’t see nature’s beauty
it’s not in movies
if your ears can’t hear
you won’t hear nature’s music
it’s not on cds
God gave us nature
to soothe the soul clean the mind
and bring peacefulness
elderberry flute
clapper sticks keep the rhythm
late into the night
religious roundhouse
and sweatlodge for the hunters
incense cedar bark
black obsidian
from the Mono Lakes region
makes good cutting tool
granite or antlers
from mule deer are hard enough
to chip arrow points
awahneeche means
people of the gaping mouth
of the Awahnee
during the hot months
cool and beautful meadows
in Tuolumne
trading with Paiutes
hunting deer and trout fishing
gathering acorns
mortars and pestles
women’s work and only men
hunted and played flutes
mock orange wood makes
good arrows and deer sinew
fastens arrowhead
trade with coastal tribes
abalone and clam shells
pretty and useful
elderberry wood
harder than incense cedar
with friction makes fire
fire heated rocks cook
acorn porridge in baskets
careful not to drop
fire in cedar hut
deer skin door flap keeps in warmth
animal fur rugs
black feathers white head
peleated woodpecker
climbing up a tree
a shy nesting pair
up in Tenaya Canyon
a rare sight to see
marital disputes
Tissiack and Tecoyo
Half Dome and North Dome
noble Douglas Fir
bruised by rockfall avalanche
healing gradually
icy pools above
sunning on the granite slabs
bathtub jacuzzi
crystals white and black
quartz feldspar mica hornblend
blended into one
tender teacher John
nature’s university
class without classroom
three point antlered buck
leading the way down path
we are close behind
floods washed away soil
and left behind cobblestones
lonely ghost forest
yellow monkey flowers
blooming on a shady cliff
next to Hidden Falls
little sunflowers
nestled in a sand-filled crack
bright yellow petals
wild ginger flowers
made just for carrion flies
forget about bees
planet earth is like
an orange peeled into plates
drifting all around
carbon dioxide
gets subducted as sea shells
mixed into magma
slowly CO2
is rereleased much later
from volcanos
this affects weather
hots and colds not too extreme
for lifeforms like us
Yosemite Naional Park
is a granite paradise
domes spires peaks and slabs
it was once below
a long chain of volcanos
just like the Cascades
intrusive plutons
ballooning up or downwards
subterranean
younger older rocks
eighty, ninety million years
approximately
polished by the ice
and rounded by the water
rock smooth and shiny
cradles weary backs
and warms the ailing body
after icy plunge
direct ratio
between granitic jointing
and the crystal size
the larger crystals
mean strong crystalline structure
also less jointing
bright full moon shining
up and over Glacier Point
dark forest beneath
mountain chickadee
sings three note tune tse de de
can you see full moon?
California
beautiful weather mountains
beaches along coast
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