Category: Nature
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The Autumn Supermoon
Through the night of October 7th, the moon swelled, bright and full,while I lay dreaming, unaware of her quiet ascent. The moon does not create her own light.The reflected light travels back to Earth, creating moonlight. The rocks and dust absorb sunlight, bouncing off the sun’s rays.We see the Lunar side. Isn’t it weird that…
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Desert Bathing
The desert mountain shimmered into life as we walked the trail. To the far north, I see the limestone cliffs in Hurricane. A sharp smell emanates from the creosotes as we sidestep the prickly pear cactus. The ocotillos wave their thorny wands above the desert rocks. Their tips burst into tiny scarlet flowerets. Many cacti…
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Inspiring Walks of William Wordsworth
I read that William Wordsworth would take long walks, sometimes with his sister, and these walks would inspire him for his poetry. He would often carry a bag with his writing tools: a journal, pencil, coat, book, and sometimes a sandwich. His sister wrote that he could write a poem in his head and write…
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Nature’s Natural Push
When I visit my daughter and her family, I love to go running or walking by Utah Lake, which is only a street away. The different times of year are always so fascinating, and I love to see what is happening in nature. I came upon the ice slabs on the lake and wondered what…
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The Day After Christmas
The day after Christmas, I went running at my son’s and daughter-in-law’s house. Their two boys were shoveling snow, but most of the streets were quiet. Snow had started to fall around 5:00 a.m. enfolding the sleeping neighborhood. The day after Christmas can sometimes be hard. There are messy piles everywhere. Gifts we have not…
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Shenandoah Sunrise
October 2023 Many mornings before the sun came over the Blue Ridge Mountains,I ventured out into the brisk air. This was the season when the bumble bee abandoned the flower, When the leaves, frost-crisp’d, were hewn down. “Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.” *…
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Polynesians: Ancient Seafayers
Just as the movie Moana portrayed, Polynesians were ocean-going voyagers of the sea. They used double-hulled canoes, sometimes fifty feet long and powered by wind. On board, they carried precious cargo of seeds, cultivated plants, and domestic animals to create and support their island ways of life: coconut, breadfruit, bananas, taro, yams, arrowroot, and sugarcane. …
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Aspiration Trail
Kevin and Anne Hanson created the Aspiration Trail to help parents find fun things to do with their children in St. George, Utah. The trail is lined with painted rocks, and half the fun is reading and looking at the rocks. I have so many favorite books that it is hard to pick one! I…
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The Geese
I wrote this during a Thanksgiving holiday at our son’s house. There is a running trail near where I took these pictures and wrote this poem. This week has been busy as we are tending our son and daughter-in-law’s kids while they are on a holiday. I went running on this trail again for just…
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The Apple Orchard
I often run past this orchard. Corn is grown on the upper west of the field while the apple trees run along the white fence. The apple trees remind me of the poem “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost; it is not because of the most obvious reason, but because I had to memorize the poem…