Thursday, May 11, 2006

A Couple Poems


I've been reading Luci Shaw's collection of poetry, What the Light was Like. Her poem, "Without a Shadow" got me thinking about hiking in the fog and I've penned the following two poems over coffee this morning. The picture to the left is of the Applachian Trail in the Mt. Roger's area of Virginia. I didn't have a scanned copy of a good fog picture, so this one will have to do.


Fog: Golden Gate Grasslands
Fog encased eucalyptus trees
stand lean as soldiers, at attention,
lining the road.

Shouldering my pack,
I follow the dirt path upward
into the grasslands
where fog enslaves,
consuming the trail behind
and hiding my path ahead.

Despite the dampness cooling my skin
and the taste of salt upon my lips,
I push toward freedom
and the sound of the foghorn
at Point Bonita
that calls my name.


Fog: Roan Mountain, Tennessee
Fog moves in
as we crest Roan Mountain.
The trail obscured,
silence engulfs the ghostly forest,
broken occasionally
by the groan of a widow maker.

We call it a day
and warm ourselves with a fire
drinking tea and drying socks.
As afternoon and evening,
twilight and night
merge into one.

At light, we tend our blisters
and shoulder our packs,
hiking north, across a meadow
observing the sunrise
above a blanket of clouds
hiding the valleys below.

17 comments:

  1. There is nothing that can compare to hiking in a fog. The world always seem much bigger and myself much smaller.

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  2. Fog is *peaceful* unless you havta drive in it.

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  3. I am hoping to do a horse ride on day at Mount Rogers. Everyone seems to really enjoy that area.

    Nice poem.

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  4. Ed, i too love hiking in the fog--it's mysterious

    Karen, hiking in fog is more fun than driving in it, unless you are hiking on a road!

    Deana, Mt. Roger's is a nice area, but I don't know anything about horseback riding there.

    Murf, just for you, here's a fog poem that kind of rhymes:

    Out on a jog
    with my dog
    running through a bog
    I tripped on a log
    and was run over by a hog
    drinking egg nog...

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  5. Uh oh, Sage, Murf's shares yet another characteristic w/me...lack of poetry writing ability lol...

    I like yours though...imagine the stories & poems you could write if you visited Australia!

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  6. Wouldn't daydream of it, Murf...this is my subliminal way of winning your heart roflmao :)

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  7. Your words and images make me wish I could be in a fog right now. It's peace, personified.

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  8. Great poems Sage man. I guess it is fair to say you've experienced the fog in a close, personal way. Your words express that skillfully.

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  9. That is a really great photo. Did you take that?

    Here from Michele's

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  10. For some reason, this reminds me of the painting, Christina's World. Don't know why...

    I'm here from Michele's today!

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  11. We all know all about Fog living in Somerset :o)

    Michele sent me

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  12. wonderful, thanks for the poems, such a delightful reading for a saturday night. Here via Michele's

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  13. These are really great poems. I love the fog, at least to see it and walk in it, but not drive in it.
    Here from Michele.

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  14. you write about the Bay area like a California refugee

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  15. Jennypenny, yes I took the photo back in the mid-80s when I was hiking that section of the Appalachian Trail

    Mallory, I'm not a California refugee, but spent several summers in school in the bay area and I loved hiking in the grasslands north of the Golden Gate and out toward Point Reynes.

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  16. The poems do well at making words that match the feeling of almost holy solitude of nature hike. :-)

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