Lost poem

Fluffy white clouds in a blue sky hover over the Grand Mesa in Colorado

The following poem is one I wrote in February 2019 when Mrs. Smith and I still lived on the Front Range.

I stumbled across it this week as I was looking for something else here at my desk on the Western Slope, where we now have a view of puffy, white clouds (new photo) hanging out above the snowy Grand Mesa.

Colorado clouds

Flat gray clouds stretch
in graceful curves, high and wide, 
slowed and bent in their journey east
by jutting, rocky peaks
and bare, windswept summits.

Towering thunderheads catch them
from behind by dusk,
taking them in and reaching higher
before crashing and booming
their way free to cross the plains.

They are closer to the ground
here than long ago.
Or is the ground closer to them,
as it is to the fierce sun
and the still-distant stars?

For more rhyme and verse, see Rhyme and verse and/or my first poetry collection.

Scenes from Bandelier 

Mrs. Smith and I explored a little bit of New Mexico last week. Just sharing a few of the many shapes and scenes in Bandelier National Monument that caught my eye….

Connecting about our climate

It’s always interesting, and often in a good way, when your interests and experience connect and relevant opportunities come along.

Mrs. Smith and I went looking for sandhill cranes one day, as you may have read in my most recent post right here on The Smith Compound.

Then I read about the effects of climate change on some migrating birds.

Then I joined the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) as a volunteer, and was asked if I’d be interested in co-authoring an op-ed about CCL’s efforts related to Earth Month, which just happens to be this month.

Yesterday, the op-ed ran in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

As the piece says, we need more conversations about climate change. Lots of them.

Feel free to share that link with anybody and to comment here about your own thoughts and concerns.

B.J.