Oh, the smell of damp forest!

Dust laid to weary rest 
   yet another year
Paths a little more worn
   from Summer's play
Autumn here
   for just a day

Familiar and new
This death
This decay
Taking center stage
   for just another day

Autumn in forest
   greets autumn in body
Forest ripe
   full
   heavy with harvest
Body ripe
   aging
   decaying
   heavy with wisdom

Leaves drop
Tears fall
Another Summer gone
Wrinkles outnumber
   the piles

Winter calls
Gratitude deepens

This too shall pass
This soon shall pass

Life cracks open
Like the fallen tree
   split into a million shards

Nothing more to hide
Nothing more to hide


(c) 2016

The next morning I found myself riding alongside my client, friend and photographer, Nathan DeHart. He was on assignment which afforded him access to the cordoned off area. I was hoping to get to my home--to see if it still stood--as well as retrieve the necessities. As soon as we embarked, though, I knew that the opportunity existed to share information--immediately with friends and neighbors living in the area, as well as in the long term, whether through blogs, articles, talks or what, I didn't know.

The ride up Bottle Rock Road, which was close to the ignition point of the tremendous blaze, but the least affected traffic arteries into the area, showed signs of immediate destruction--power poles downed, wires strewn about the roads; helicopters flying overhead dangling their load of water, swaying gently across the hazed sky; patches of scorched earth interspersed with surviving foliage. The choking haze reminded me of  sci-fi movies. Particularly those scenes of landscapes devoid of life due to lethal gases. Were those same lethal gases now choking our lungs, choking our eyes?