This collection contains poems written from 1965 through 2015. One of my favorites is:
The Mountain and the Spider: A Fable
Nestling in the warm hard golden grass
of a mountain meadow,
three people watch the sunset
across a craggy gorge.
Above the fiercely rushing river,
a mountain rises sharp and pink
in dusk's reflected splendor.
The two young women murmur
quietly to each other; while occasionally
their little niece chimes in.
Their chatter dwindles to a close
as the mountain glows unearthly embers.
The three of them watch,
lost in their own thoughts,
as the color drains away.
The mountain's large whiteness hangs
against a black backdrop of sky.
Impressed by such immensity,
one of them turns to the child and says,
"Wouldn't it be neat
to be on top of that mountain?
You could see everything if you were up there."
The child, very small anyway,
and surrounded by so many
single living blades of grass, says simply,
"You couldn't see spiders."
of a mountain meadow,
three people watch the sunset
across a craggy gorge.
Above the fiercely rushing river,
a mountain rises sharp and pink
in dusk's reflected splendor.
The two young women murmur
quietly to each other; while occasionally
their little niece chimes in.
Their chatter dwindles to a close
as the mountain glows unearthly embers.
The three of them watch,
lost in their own thoughts,
as the color drains away.
The mountain's large whiteness hangs
against a black backdrop of sky.
Impressed by such immensity,
one of them turns to the child and says,
"Wouldn't it be neat
to be on top of that mountain?
You could see everything if you were up there."
The child, very small anyway,
and surrounded by so many
single living blades of grass, says simply,
"You couldn't see spiders."
