Words of God - Missoula, Montana

"Rocks and waters...are words of God, and so are men. 
We all flow from one fountain Soul."

- John Muir (1838-1914)

March Marching On - Missoula, Montana

March in Montana means daffodils strive impatiently to bloom

 while humans still need a toque on lunchtime walks. 

(Well, at least those of us with Tinkerbell haircuts casting faerie ears out into the blustery March winds.)

Hope Blooms - Missoula, Montana

"Black and white are the colors of photography. 
To me they symbolize the alternatives
 of hope and despair
 to which mankind is forever subjected." 

- Robert Frank

Beautiful Frailty - Missoula, Montana

"He did not want to be whitewashed or excused....Whitewash brought no comfort.

The real comfort was to have one's sins and weaknesses not explained away but understood and shared.

...It struck him that it can be as much by our weakness as by our virtue that we can serve each other."

-from The Rosemary Tree by Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984), page 337

Tree Wanderers - Up Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!"

-John Muir (1838-1914)

Ship Shape Clouds - Victor, Montana

"...Only for the turning of the earth in her holy

Heart! Slyly, slowly, hearing the wound in her side go 

Round the sun, he comes to my love like the designed snow, 

And truly he 

Flows to the strand of flowers like the dew's ruly sea, 

And surely he sails like the ship shape clouds. 

Oh he 

Comes designed to my love to steal not her tide raking 

Wound, nor her riding high, nor her eyes, nor kindled hair, 

But her faith that each vast night and the saga of prayer 

He comes to take...

Ever and ever by all your vows believe and fear 

My dear this night he comes and night without end my dear                                          

Since you were born: 

And you shall wake, from country sleep, this dawn and each first dawn, 

Your faith as deathless as the outcry of the ruled sun."

- From In country sleep II, by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), 

published in the volume Collected Poems, 1934-1952

Read the full text of this poem and more from Dylan Thomas here,

 thanks to Project Gutenberg of Australia. (And be sure to read his collection's introductory Note.

Hidden gems abound in Author notes and acknowledgements!)

Poplars Under Stormy Spring Sky - Victor, Montana

"...The people pass through the dust
On bicycles, in carts, in motor-cars;
The waggoners go by at dawn;
The lovers walk on the grass path at night.

Stir from your roots, walk, poplar!
You are more beautiful than they are..."

- from The Poplar by Richard Aldington (1892-1962)

Happy early Spring! Click here to be charmed by the full read of this winsome poem, and satisfy your minds-eye yearning for spring imagery.

Almost-Spring Storm Clouds - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

Despite stormy clouds rolling from the west over the Rocky Mountains, we're pushing 50 degrees F on a beautiful Bitterroot almost-spring morning!