Poems by RJ Rice
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And If It All Seems Pointless
by RJ Rice
From Canary Fall 2021
RJ lives in the mountains north of Yellowstone Park in the Gallatin subbasin of the Missouri watershed.
drive out one morning early
away from the binge-talkers, the roughness of crowds.
Walk in the untilled fields, quiet with autumn,
where new snow gives off the light it gathered
on the way down. Geese lift calling and flow south,
doing good the only way they know.
Now is not the time for contemplating spring. Time
drifts here without intention. Release
what your white-knuckled heart
needs to set down. A dozen trees are your witness.
Let your life turn and face you. This matters more
than the sum of your distractions. Forgive yourself.
And don’t encourage your thoughts: The ones obsessed
with yes this, no that? Those thoughts.
When there’s nothing left between gaze and leaf
disquiet fades. Astounded and unburdened
you hardly know what you know.
Praise is the peace that begins.
© RJ Rice
Haibun for a Wolf
by RJ Rice
On an early spring walk through the woods I bend down to trace a wolf’s track in the snow.
A number of years ago Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone Park eighty
miles to the south, and have expanded their range northward. Most Montanans do not
like wolves and would exterminate them again if they could. Their motto is Shoot,
Shovel and Shut Up.
The stream flows its shining, quiet sentence of praise.
A wolf, minister of winter, howls its acceptance.
The silence that follows sinks deep in the snow.
© RJ Rice