cool, rocky shallows

minnows flash like shooting stars

slipping between stones

           Pettit Lake, Sawtooth National Recreation Area

Life perched on death
Soft soul on polished silver
Singing their hearts out

 

Gray jay, silver limb and blue sky

 

 

Where the river bends
The sun breaking like
A shower of coins

Salmon River at sundown

 

Flinty old-timers arrange themselves into
Fringed frame of pungent needles, then
Swapping their usual rock-strewn stories
Their old sloped shoulders and crooked peaks slide
Haltingly from view

 

Fill and deepen,
deepen and reflect; reflect,
transcend . . . set free

they climb the sky
eager wild blooms drinking
endless blue

Low green canopy
Height of yellow-hot summer
A winged lullaby

Marshall Lake’s outlet creek, Sawtooth NRA

 

Hot sepia wind
Peaks vanish, phantom birds cry
Raw-throated prayers

Two photos of Stanley, Idaho–same vantage point, 7 weeks apart