The sky comes down
To the bare edge of rock <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Profane and atheist. And all around
\nFilled with weather, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soaring clouds, and cool breezes.
\nAt the verge of a U-shaped canyon,
\nA stone-amphitheater <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheer, sculpted cliffs
From a curved ridge of debris, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Towering over a broad lumbered valley And miscellany of boulders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the magic of bracken and grass, Hidden in the woods dense and dark, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ponderosa, Lodgepole pines, and Douglas fir,
\nDead-wood and downed-timber, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tree-hanging lichen flourishes.
\nTangled, elongated masses
\nOf green threads, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long drapes\u2014in yellow to ochre
\nWrought from coyote hair, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Signify the burial-ground
\nIn a sanctuary of bones For the first people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whirlwinds follow gusty squalls, Funnel in thunderstorms And fire from lightning strikes.
\nThe resulting conflagration
\nBurns until lamenting ends <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014so, the dead may sleep undisturbed\u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As winter storms
\nAnd summer droughts
\nWash over the forest like a sea, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the salmon return To spawn at Mono Hot-Springs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sky comes down To the bare edge of rock Profane and atheist. And all around Filled with weather, Soaring clouds, and cool breezes. At the verge of a U-shaped canyon, A stone-amphitheater Sheer, sculpted cliffs From a curved ridge of debris, Towering over a broad lumbered valley And miscellany of boulders. In the magic … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-uy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1897,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894\/revisions\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Stephen Barile, a Fresno, California native, was educated in the public schools, and attended Fresno City College, (AA) Fresno Pacific University, (BA), and California State University, Fresno (MFA). He is the former chairman of the William Saroyan Society, and a long-time member of the Fresno Poet’s Association. Mr. Barile taught writing at Madera Center Community College, lives and writes in Fresno. His poems have been published extensively, including The Heartland Review, Rio Grande Review, The Packinghouse Review, Undercurrents, The Broad River Review, The San Joaquin Review, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Beginnings, Pharos, and Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"