I love when the
Gentle rays of the
Summer sun
Lock the world in
A warm embrace

And the little lake
Smiles a mysterious smile
As if guarding the land’s
Great secret –
A distant memory
Carried by
Shimmering scales
Of quiet trout

The snow-capped mountains
Crown the silent landscape
A wreath laid on the memorial
Of all that was:
Forest, lake and deer –
How much has shifted
On the stage of nature

Snow, the wrath of a volcano
The soft pulse of native drums
Crackling campfire
Flags, paths, and frontiers
Dreams stretched on deerskin
Disappointments burned to ash

Mighty storms that ripped tall spruce
Out of earth’s bleeding chest
Where lives were born and cradled
In sacred peace
Hope once banished to the winds
Torn into jagged pieces
Thrown into flames
Or buried in city dumps

How much change this landscape
Might have witnessed,
The peaks, the branches
Beloved of the breeze,
Joy of silent fish in the lake,
The quiet sentinel:
The summer sun setting
Softly over the horizon