Serenity

at Black Diamond Mine Preserve

Ridgeline sits
Perfectly curved against blue
Blue sky, tree of heaven
Reminds us of Chinese labor
Tree of heaven adapted well
To nurturing climate
Of California
Green, green hills
Bring whimsy thoughts of rolling
Tumbling over and over
Towards the bottom
Pretty purple ethereal spears
Graves remind us of times past
How could they imagine
That today strangers would walk over ground
Where their tombstones lay
Trying to regain some connection
To the land, nature
“Too sweet a flower to bloom on earth.
She is gone to bloom in heaven”.
This was dedicated to Julia Etta
Glammorgan Shire
South Wales 1846
Dave Morgan
Tomb
 
Welsh names remind us of pioneers
From a land far away.
Owls, clover, purple cone
 
Digger (grey) pine leans
Gracefully left like a ghost
With large cones.
 
East Bay hills
Carry waves
Depressions carved
By slumping rolling of soil
Blue hills
Baby rattlesnake suns itself
On this beautiful, warm, sunny day
Trail turns left
Where California poppies
Decorate slab residue pile
Reminds us of former mining days
Trail summons us
Shade
Cool
Cavern beckons invitingly
As we climb
Treacherous sand
Imported from Belgium to make glass
Coulter pine sheds huge pine cone
Smooth chestnut brown
Manzanita bark begs my touch
I am sweating profusely now
But never happier
Contentment
Is a Saturday hike after a week of slavery
Mind numbing machines
 
Miner’s lettuce
Would adorn a house walk gracefully
Purple nightshade (digitalis) poisonous to eat
Shooting
Star
Ithuriel’s spear