Photo by Jim MacKenzie
I took my son into the forest. He is a fearless child, but he was frightened by the woods and never left my side. We found chanterelles under the oaks, and carried them home for dinner. Even in the kitchen my son clung to me. We cooked the mushrooms with a handful of garlic in olive oil and butter. I added chicken, seven lemons, seven limes, and a scoop of cinnamon, why not? Steam from the noodles fogged our windows, so the moon that night was vague, mysterious, but available.
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Fog descends over the tidal surge and the shallow lagoons. The marsh grass and the alders at the water’s edge fade, then vanish in the mist. The tan oaks and the redwoods are only shadows that waver for a moment then disappear. The world is beyond us. It is held now in a vaporous light, the smoke from a fire burning somewhere in heaven.
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Sparrows glean the air for gnats, and over the bluff two hawks hold, motionless above the breakers. Wind in the redwoods, a rush in the blood; I can feel the breeze that buoys the birds about to carry me away.
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The earth submits to seasonal drift. The stars slide, and the planets swing higher over the horizon every day. This morning the sun sent a shaft of light through a rift in the redwoods; it followed the steep angle of the canyon, skirted the stream, the wild azalea, the granite cut bank, and shone on the brick stoop beneath the stone arch at our gate. It rested there only for a moment, but my son found it. He sat there warming himself, and anyone watching the light play over his body could have believed he was made of gold.
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I stood on a narrow bridge where the marsh meets the incoming tide, and I saw two birds. The first one called out softly as it turned and drifted on the wind, while the other one, make of light, slid silently over the surface of the bay.
About The Author Gary Young’s books include Hands, The Dream of A Moral Life, Days, Braver Deeds and Pleasure. His book No Other Life won the William Carlos Williams Award, and in 2009 he received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. His most recent book is Even So: New and Selected Poems. He was Santa Cruz County’s first Poet Laureate, and was named Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year in 2012. He teaches poetry and directs the Cowell Press at UC Santa Cruz.
The Outdoor Poet is edited by Robert Sward, author of numerous books of poetry including, most recently, New and Selected Poems: 1957-2011 (Red Hen Press). He lives on the Westside with his wife, the artist Gloria Alford, and a poodle mix named Cosette. Participation in The Outdoor Poet is by invitation.
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