Hike Haiku

Written on Jan. 1, 2004, while hiking between Southern Dharma Retreat Center and "The Meadow".

Woods walk, dead winter
Colors mainly brown and gray
A million wonders

Man built this cabin
A collapsed heap of rubble
Winner: gravity!

Thick, constricting vine
Angles to distant treetop
How’d it get up there?

A shiny new home
After nine collapsed cabins
How long will it stand?

Their home stands alone
Five hour drive, nine mile walk
Must not get out much

Water is silent
You’re really hearing the rocks
And the river bank

Chair says welcome
Mountains in all directions
I have reached the top

Static white contrails
I gaze; no detail changes
The sky is so close

Twenty minutes pass
Those contrails that would not change
Have all disappeared

Brown dead leaves wobble
Like an old man’s palsied head
Stubbornly clinging

Mountaintop – strange noise
Truck engine? Airplane? ET?
Powered hang glider

Beats “No Trespassing”:
“Unexpected visitors
Welcome tomorrow”

Downhill decision
Restrict myself to walking
Or let go and run?

My valueless words
Are just noise to stream and tree
Like swirls before pine