Category: Poetry

Beneath forgotten trestle’s flow Rainfall bounty, melted snow Where heron, bass, and beaver go I can hear  The river calling Misted memory’s mountain home Rocky rapid’s rippled foam Long lost laughter skipping stones I can hear The river calling We swam, we fished Wind’s whispered wish Wild water’s kiss...

A Wood Duck Celebration in Haiku   Haiku is a traditional Japanese short verse form written to celebrate some aspect of nature or life. While it has numerous nuances and variations, in my rudimentary understanding, a Haiku basically consists of three lines of verse written in a non-rhyming pattern,...

An SLHS ’81 Classmate Collaboration By Jackie Ely & Dick Monroe (With a cameo assist by Karen Barrow Pittman) Winter’s Long March Behind Me Birch Trees Framing My Thoughts Sitting Alone in a Park Contemplating Ice-Covered Mountain Lake Waters Quietly Waiting for Spring (And waiting…and waiting) Soaking In April’s...

Author’s Note: I drafted this poem many years ago for my wife. My handwritten notes simply bear the date “1990”, so I must have written it shortly after Robin and I married. For reasons unbeknownst to me at this point in life, it sat all these years gathering dust...

Author’s Note: What a beautiful day today! Everything sparkles after last night’s fresh snow. The sky is so blue. The sun shine’s such bright warmth.  I took my canine companions out for a snowshoe “paw patrol” stroll. The poem below formed in my head while the dogs explored and...

Author’s Note: The snowshoes pictured here are my dad’s vintage pair. He made them in Ranger School during his time at Wanakena. He graduated from Ranger School in 1961, two years before I was born. They are still sturdy, solid and strong. I have taken great care to maintain...

Author’s Note: This is a little something different, an experiment of sorts that I wanted to try. Combining a photo with a single word in an effort to capture a particular emotion, feeling, or moment using just one word. ********** “BE” ********** “MEMORIES” ********** “LIFE” ********** Until Our Trails...

A Season’s End Hunter’s Poem ********** Each Season’s End Harvests Hunter’s Reflections What Was What Wasn’t What Might Have Been **********   Fallen Waterfowl Feathers Fall Foliage Breeze Trail’s First Frosted Tracks Fresh Buck Rubbed Trees ********** Morning Pre-Dawn Stealth Silence Hunter’s Hart Prayers for Luck ‘Til That True Shot’s...

Soar High Above Windswept Waters with Eagles Breathe Crisp Mountain Air Through The Trees Rise to The Sun Each Frosty Fall Morning Live Each Day Mother Earth’s Outlaw Way One With Nature Under God Free ********** Until Our Trails Cross Again: Live Each Day True To Your Own ADKO...

*Author’s Warning: Darkness lies ahead. It’s a place in my life. The part I show no one. Not a place that I seek. Just a trail I end up on. A black that finds me. A dark place where I go. Unexpectedly sometimes. It’s a part of me now....