The Consciousness of Willows 

Sometimes when I sit quiet by the river
I can hear them among the dizzy buzz
Of insects, the white noise of flowing water,

Not songs exactly, unvoiced thoughts,
Of greenness reaching towards the sun,

For roiling water of spring floods,
The thrash of rushing waves washing into
Eddylines writhing with debris and driftwood,

For graceful bending, roots in damp sand
Sinking intentions deep to hold on tight;
They reach up to beckon songbirds

Invited to perch on swaying branches,
In return for keeping down the pests,
They contemplate the reedy heron who fishes

In calm still water slenderly disguised
By its supple willow-like neck
Until it rises on startled wings, unmoored,

Without disappointment, joy or sadness
They hold fast to water, Earth and sky
Though they acknowledge nothing but willowness.

To read more of Amy’s poetry, click the image below:

“Simple Chaos 6 Revisited” (2010) by Sandy Brunvand. Visit Sandy’s website at http://www.sandybrunvand.com/.

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/?p=7799

Excerpt:

There is an inference in this debate, that if one wants to find the heart and soul of backward, uninformed, uneducated, anti-scientific thought, one need not look further than the right-wing Christian, conservative political movement in America.

But those who invoke science as the last word cannot pick and choose its application, any more than a conservative can reject the science out of hand. While ‘progressives’ mock their conservative cousins for their climate change denial tendencies, there are some inconsistencies and contradictions–even hypocrisies— that need to be explained by them as well.

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http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/?p=7966

Excerpt:

I know the drive back home intimately. Coming from any direction, the Black Hills are a forested island, rising out of the dust-sea of plains. The hills are old and carry all the legends of old age. Harney Peak, where the Seven Sisters rose into the stars to form the Pleiades constellation, lies in the South; Wind Cave, home to the Buffalo Lady, a few miles down the road. Just outside Sturgis, my hometown, Bear Butte stands as testimony to centuries of spirit quests, to the boyhoods of men like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and also to the continuing saga of greed. When climbing the Butte, it’s always disheartening to know General Custer stood in the same spot in 1874, surveying the land South and West, and he imagined himself master of everything he saw.

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http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/?p=7934

Excerpt:

One of them is Kara Dohrenwend. She and her husband Ray have lived in Moab and Grand County for more than two decades and Ray’s family has a rich history in southeast Utah, going back a century to the legendary Doc Williams.

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http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/?p=7963