"By Frazier Creek Falls" by Gary Snyder

Frazier Creek Falls, Plumas National Forest, California

Photo: Robert Fike

Standing up on lifted, folded rock

looking out and down—

The creek falls to a far valley.

hills beyond that

facing, half-forested, dry

—clear sky

strong wind in the

stiff glittering needle clusters

of the pine—their brown

round trunk bodies

straight, still;

rustling trembling limbs and twigs

listen.

This living flowing land

is all there is, forever

We are it

it sings through us—

We could live on this Earth

without clothes or tools!

"By Frazier Creek Falls" by Gary Snyder from No Nature. © Pantheon Books, 1992.