Krag Peak, view West, Eagle Cap Wilderness . . . [ click photo for next . . . ]
(VIII.25.08)

—a central mountain of the South Wallowas with splendid
views in all directions, at 2733 meters. PHOTO was made the
end of August. Notice how all the distant East & Northfacing
cirques are dry, completely free of lingering snow.

Snowpack in the Northwest in down 50% since 1950.
Winter comes on average three weeks later; Spring,
about three weeks earlier. If you would like to experience
what the Alps might look like with Climate Chaos in 2040,
come to the Wallowas. And Glacier National Park in 2020,
also, come to the Wallowas.

| see also my page for Climate Change in the Wallowas |

On the road in the Northwest of America.

METAPHOR?

Metaphor? A movement of resonance

perhaps, a rhyming not of sounds or words,

but of meaning.


Do you not know this light and quick

movement of energy as two separate

thoughts touch wings and fly off

into the distance together?

CREDO

For me, Religion begins at road's end, where the way
is too steep and too narrow for the orderly, systematic
logic of thought to follow, and the rigidity of belief easily
gives way to the more waterlike flexibility of the ever-possible.

Here, I seem to find the mystery of the abundantly new
and the unknown made manifest with each breath, with
each passing step, with each unexpected bend of a trail.

I light a match to a campfire, and see a timeless ring
of humanity before me; I step out of my tent in the middle
of the night and see a comet streak across a star-filled,
moonless sky and wish only for more such nights; I awake
to the distant sound of a bird I know I have never seen,
perhaps never will see, but recognize and cheerish its song,
sounding its long, silver-thin notes in a pure, effortless way
as if it were singing to all the mornings of the world.

I only ask myself, "Why can't I sing like that?"

METAPHOR? & CREDO are part of
THE LITTLE CLAVIER
please preview 150 of 631 pages
w/ my black & white photography
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All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 1999-2011 picture-poems.com
(created: VIII.7.2008)