aLand Beyond The River
"There's a land beyond the river that we call the sweet forever..."
Daniel de Marbelle 1882
By Full Moon Light ~ Time records the Moon's full light/ The wind to silence yields/ My eyes feast on your placid view/ West Butte, on the this stilly winter night. Winter House Johnson Stubble ~ Trees that break pause the wind/ And slighty slow the howling din/ Stubble marches, marking rows/ Piercing through the drifted snow./Angled signs of man's footprint./ The Corral Frozen Spring Where Hefner Meets The Milk ~ Beneath the old man's buffalo jump/ The bones have turned to dust/ While Hoodoos watch the winter wind/ Sand smooth the river's icey crust/ To a glazy, brazen ribbon of silk/ Where the Heffner meets the Milk. January Sunset Graham Homestead ~ The south wind cries/ Through December's eyes/ Tears of frost/ Sting the winter sky/ Life frozen in time. Belaire On The Milk ~ How long you do rest/ Silent in your emptiness/ Transporter from the past/ Frozen on the border/ No wheels, no drive, no gas. Coffin Bridge Parhelion ~ Luminous diamond dust/ Drapes the iron Coffin./ Cold light bends/ Mocking the Sun./ 'Dazzle mine eyes', Parahelion. Verburg Slough Old Hay Seed ~ Take this land/ No one has wanted/ Room enough to roam./ 'Just imagine'/ He would wonder/ and cross the ridge alone. West Butte In Spring WOS Sunrise ~ If heaven's like this/ Well, then here's where I'll be/ On the edge of the field/ On the edge of the earth/ Before gas and TV. M.Knopfler Spring Storm West Butte ~ The distant peal of thunder announced the coming rain/ The blackened wall of water immersed the eastern plains/ In hope and dreams of autumn and bounty from the grain. Lone Tree East Butte View Sentinel ~ Milk River Natural Area The Iconoclasts ~ Braque, Leger, et Gris,/ Duchamp, Lipchitz and Picasso/ Cut and paste round to square/ Roll call of the Cubists. Painted Rock ~ Milk River Natural Area Les Trois Buttes ~ In afterglow of the Solstice/ The Hills of Sweet Grass stretch./ Intrusive invaders, an island range/ Untouched by the Laurentide ice./ Weather makers, vision shapers/ Sentinels to the spirit world./ Kaytosis Verdegris Coulee Moon Rise West Butte Autumn Trees ~ Milk River Natural Area Autumn at the Oxbow ~ Autmn at the oxbow/ Cottonwoods ablaze/ Grasses tawny brown and yellow/ Smell the sweet sage./ Autumn at the oxbow/ The Milk is running low. The Rooster ~ Milk River Natural Area Homestead View ~ The shadow's long/ and changing hue/ The light is fleeing/ somewhere new/ The wind's at rest/ and the day is through. Sunrise Miller House ~ Which way do I turn?/ Making haste in the morning twilight/ Circling, there is no beaten path/ To this story without a plaque/ The view is always to my back. Colliton Homestead View ~ There is no boundary here/ Between the long light of day/ And the passing of the years./ A mountain grinds down slowly/ And in time, all lines disappear. Earth Shadow ~ I am told there is nothing here/ Lonely land lying dry and bare/ But from it's sea of stubble carpet/ Rises the color of the dusk. Dance of Fire ~ Clouds race east, riding the wind/ Over sweet grass and lichen rock/ Into the earth's shadow/ While the Sun smoulders/ Beneath the line of earth and sky/ Igniting the Dance of Fire.