AMERICAN PIKA (Ochotona princeps) at 2400 m., small alpine member of the Rabbit family,
year-round inhabitant of boulder fields above treeline bordering small meadows [ click photo for next . . . ]

True mountain farmers, Pikas do not hibernate, but rather put up as much as 24 times their own weight in winter hay. They are also vulnerable to climate change and rising temperatures. Not able to tolerate in excess of 26 c. for longer than a few hours, their supreme adaptation to cold may prove to be an increasing burden with rising temperatures and declining mountain snowpacks.

Below is some wonderful footage of Pikas active in their typical talus environment by the ever-charming and engaging, Sir David Attenborough . . .

Two PIKA tweets....spread the word....the pikas
will thank you!

WATCHING: Pika, mountain farmer of land above the trees, puts up 24x its weight in hay, now under threat w/ rising temps http://bit.ly/130cK8j

READING: Petition to list the American Pika as threatened or endangered (2007) by @CenterForBioDiv pdf [656 k] http://bit.ly/13kcIvn

On the road in the Northwest of America.

TIME is not a resource. TIME is not money.

TIME is RHYTHM, this cycle within cycles

within cycles, wheels turning about

a motionless hub.

TWO LITTLE POEMS
ABOUT EVERYTHING . . .

(1) ONE MORNING

One morning, the mountain farmer goes out
to milk his goats and never comes back;
A quiet stream leaps from the edge of a high
granite cliff and disappears into the late
summer air;

Sitting in an alpine meadow, more flowers
than grass, the sound of delicate bells
rings out,

wave after wave,

from the metal which sleeps in rocks.



(2) STONE MOUNTAINS

for Bel

If one carries the mountain in one’s heart, to
pick up the stone is to pick up the mountain,
the world.

But for us, a stone is just a stone and nothing
more, just so much dead weight,
like a pack which grows heavier
with each passing step.

Half way up, half broken, turning back...
and the sound of stone mountains
just is—in the wind.

FIREWEED POEMS please preview
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If you're a picture-poems fan, please visit my Living Water
Gallery—the best of my flowform photography w/ a selection
of quality prints & frames . . .

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