Of taking long walks it has been said that a person can walk offanything. Here David Mason hikes a mountain in his home state,Colorado, and steps away from an undisclosed personal loss into anotherstate, one of healing.
In the Mushroom Summer
Colorado turns Kyoto in a shower,
mist in the pines so thick the crows delight
(or seem to), winging in obscurity.
The ineffectual panic of a squirrel
who chattered at my passing gave me pause
to watch his Ponderosa come and go—
long needles scratching cloud. I'd summited
but knew it only by the wildflower meadow,
the muted harebells, paintbrush, gentian,
scattered among the locoweed and sage.
Today my grief abated like water soaking
underground, its scar a little path
of twigs and needles winding ahead of me
downhill to the next bend. Today I let
the rain soak through my shirt and was unharmed.
I will be taking over the responsibility of posting this weekly column that Kevin has been posting. It will come out weekly, though the next couple will be posted right in a row since we are a little behind.In the Mushroom Summer
Colorado turns Kyoto in a shower,
mist in the pines so thick the crows delight
(or seem to), winging in obscurity.
The ineffectual panic of a squirrel
who chattered at my passing gave me pause
to watch his Ponderosa come and go—
long needles scratching cloud. I'd summited
but knew it only by the wildflower meadow,
the muted harebells, paintbrush, gentian,
scattered among the locoweed and sage.
Today my grief abated like water soaking
underground, its scar a little path
of twigs and needles winding ahead of me
downhill to the next bend. Today I let
the rain soak through my shirt and was unharmed.
Reprinted by permission from "The HudsonReview," Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Summer 2006). Copyright © 2006 by DavidMason. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, TheLibrary of Congress, and the Department of English at the University ofNebraska, Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
American Life in Poetry is a free weekly column for newspapers and online publications featuring a poem by a contemporary American poet and a brief introduction to the poem by Ted Kooser.
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