River’s Influence - Yellowstone River, Livingston, Montana

“Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.”  — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Nature

Other Days Blue Sky - Missoula, Montana

"...Other days from ridge to ridge
there’s only a high, dry, guileless blue,
and you can fairly hear
the meadow grass breathe. You could say,

I have lived well. You could say, I have lived
well and anyway been troubled. You could say, 

Come evening,
deer browse the meadow fringe."

-From BACK FORTY: MANIFESTO by Joe Wilkins

Mystical Ice - Missoula, Montana

"There’s always that first step in skating, from dry ground to slick ice, when it just seems impossible. Impossible that two thin blades of metal will support you, impossible that because its molecules have begun to dance a little slower water will hold you up."  - Carol Goodman, The Lake of Dead Languages

And this is the last of the mystical ice pictures, confluence of freeze-melt-shimmer shadow-reflection captured in the blink of a digital lens. Winter does, indeed, have its particular charms, if we will just bundle up with only our eyes showing and go take a look.

Leftover Gold - Missoula, Montana

Autumn's golden leavings 

stand rustling

amidst winter's stark wind 

and marbled shore,

like so many muddled strands of 
Rumplestiltskin's discards.

-ch