Moonset Over Banff

from my recent journey through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada

weary crescent moon

swiftly sinks into the rock

she's been up all day

Bathing in Banff

A Magpie Tale

from my recent journey through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada

People of Chilmark, Thomas Hart Benton, 1920

An international cast of tens
dons bathing suits to sit and soak;
twenty minutes suffice most folk
at thirty-nine degrees centigrade.

Some few have brought their youngsters in,
who splash with wild aquatic joy.
Do they amuse, or just annoy
the statues steaming in the shade?

Sunrise Over Kamloops

A Magpie Tale

from my recent journey through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada

Wheat Field with Rising Sun, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

The sun sneaks up in Seattle,

light filtering through layers

of cloud, needle, and leaf.

Some days only birds can tell

that dawn has come at all.

Along the Thompson River,

smooth hills hardly hinder

the whole sky's growing glow.

Still I resist rising

until the sun turns its spotlight

upon my thin tent door

and morning insists

that it not be ignored.