Western st. John's Wort (Hypericum scouleri ssp. nortoniae), [ click photo for next . . . ]
High Wallowas . . .

Close relative of the European invasive Klamath Weed
(Hypericum perfolatum), the flowers of the native
St. John's Wort look very similar. It has a strong,
erect, and hairless stem with opposite leaves,
and grows in seeps, close to springs and stream banks.
The yellow of the flowers has a kind of shiny brilliance
one can spot at some distance. The entire plant is
edible.

THE WIDER CONTEXT—East Eagle,
center of the Eagle Cap Wilderness in
Northeast Oregon, Where the Western
St. John's Wort as photographed . . .

On the road in the Northwest of America.

"Cut down. Dig

up. Put barbed-wire around the rest."

MAN OF ONE CUP—
three 37-step poems

(i)

Empty, round, metal

cup I use every day, how I’ve

grown fond of the feel in my hand,


center with


gifts from near and far . . .

Hot tea steeped in cold spring water.



(ii)

Square grid without a

center, towns built with quick money,

with gold, whiskey, easy women.


Your home was


always someplace else.

O Silver Maple, so far West.



(iii)

Boom days of easy

plunder now a thing of the past,

Speed’s run flat dead knowing that the


direction


was wrong. Cut down. Dig

up. Put barbed-wire around the rest.

MAN OF ONE CUP is part of
THE LITTLE CLAVIER please preview 150 of 631 pages
w/ my black & white photography [opens in new window]