Wyoming

Wyoming

You lift your rugged mountains to the sky.

                Each peak a mile or more above the seas

                Up where the air will blow and bite and freeze

And comb the clouds as silently they fly

 

Collecting snow so cold it feels like dry

Ice upon the weathered, broken rocks

Tumbled from the mountains, toppled blocks

Where years and weather sound like one long sigh

 

The snow across your frozen ground does lie

                In wind-swept drifts that hide the rocks and ruts

                And smooths the land of all its dips and juts

The earth looks smooth, unbroken to the eye.

 

Below the mountain peaks so tall and high

                The valley’s rolling hills look up their face

                They would be mountains in a lesser place

Here their height the mountains do belie.

 

In the valley here, a grizzly bear does hide

                But his tracks are all the evidence he leaves

                And all that see them there quickly believes

To meet him here is probably to die.

The tracks cross a creek under a slate-grey sky

                They’re clear and perfect in the fresh fallen snow

                And disappear as down the valley they go.

Sometime in the night the old boy passed by

 

Large herds of elk are migrating by

                They come up the hills in an unbroken stream

                Misty breath blowing and antlers agleam

Following old trails, and instincts they can’t deny

 

The snow is no challenge, nor the ridges too high

                They go where they want seeming only to stroll

                Their next feeding ground is their only goal

Like a caravan of old, they cover the miles

 

Mountains in heaven where winds heave and sigh

                Valleys of snow powdery and dry

                Bears and elk are traveling by

A land of harsh beauty, wonderful, wild.

 

©James L. Frady  12/24/2022

 

Requiem For The Fading Stars

 

Requiem For The Fading Stars

 

I weep for the stars that I can’t see.

That in my youth were so amazing to me.

I look to the heavens and the faded sky;

A sad remnant of days gone by,

When my brother and I would lie in the grass,

And watch shooting stars, and the zodiac pass.

The constellations were so clear and bright,

That swirled overhead throughout the night.

We knew them all and called their names,

And point them out in our own little games.

To see who could spot them and see the most

Starry figures in the brilliant hosts

Of stars, and the band of the Milky Way

As we dreamed of star ships to carry us away.

 

Oh, the stars of our long-lost youth!

I can’t see you now, it’s a painful truth

That lost to the night is Orion’s bow,

And the little dipper barely shows.

All drowned out by bright city lights

And streetlamps everywhere to banish the night

I look up now, and it pains my heart,

As I clearly see that we’re losing the stars.

The stars that helped our dreams to soar;

To reach for the heavens and strive for more

Than a life of sustenance by sweat and clod,

To dream of becoming more like God.

It was the stars that taught our hearts to dream

But now we don’t need them or care, it seems

Now we live every day and night,

Bathed in the glow of artificial light.

As the stars fade away and men’s’ dreams grow small

And we soon will forget that men once stood tall.

We grow smaller when we don’t stretch our mind.

I fear we’ll be lost to the mists of time.

Maybe when the lights all fade,

We’ll see them again and find our way.

 

We need the stars. We need the night.

We need to reach for those points of light.

We need the shadows, dark and deep

And those heavens above, our dreams to keep,

From fading away like the stars we’ve lost

Because we love convenience, no matter the cost.

 

I stand outside alone at night,

To soak in the darkness, so cool and quiet.

But I weep for the stars that I can’t see.

And the sense of wonder that’s been stolen from me.

 

© James L. Frady April 4, 2019.