11/13 So I keep digg'n and win'n

She reached for the bag 

and I snapped at that hag. 

No you don't. 

Get on out of here. 

My whole life it's been clear. 

I don't need you dear. 

You know it too 

and all I do for you. 

Is provide and protect 

but I get little respect 

and neither do you 

so that's how we do.  

Now each day it gets colder 

as we grow older 

and I try and I try 

just to get by 

but you keep 

holding me back 

making me fat

In the roaring

In the roaring

White pounding cascade hurtling down

I feel the life and love of the universe

It flows on me, over me, with me, through me

It is me

Wordsworth's "transparent eyeball" *

Like the bare roots of ancient trees 

That cover the trail like cobble stones

I am integral, I belong

When the bracing water embraces me

I don't shudder. I stroke it gently

Glide out into it's energy

Feel revived, renewed, invigorated

Refreshment I haven't known

Since covid 

Nature is mine and I am hers

She wraps me in her bosom

Of snow-melt run-off

And I am warm again

Not trudging

From a cup of coffee to bed

Day after day

I am alive

As wild, and free 

Timeless and deep

Young, old, and wise

As she

The city beats

I connect with kindred spirits

In the bars, in the streets

In the faces that I meet 

But plunging into this heaven

Swimming out to these rocks

Where she reaches down from above

To massage my back and shoulders

With her strong loving hands

I feel like I am her only child

So much love she bestows on me

Hikers climb down the steep rocks

To see her glorious splendor. They line her banks

They won't brave her icy water

Won't get in her, be with her

And realize 

We are her

Conquer and subdue is their goal

Post an Instagram selfie, get some likes

Go have a beer

I hear her in the spray 

Spattering the rocks

Where I sit 

She's laughing

And I laugh, too.

* From "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson