DAY 1
Fog
Boat
A deer
Chewing lichen
On the shore
Of Silver Bay
We pose at the trailhead
For a picture
And set
Into the wild
Bear shit
Rain
Lunch on a fallen log
Across Salmon Creek
Now we’re in a field
Grass and wet and mud
Can’t find the right trail
Fuck
Muck
Mud
Water dumping down the rocks
Is this the right trail
Should we turn around
Hunger
Dizziness
Confusion
Defeat
Turn around
Mother Nature
Is indifferent
To your arrogant white ass
Salmon Lake
Cabin
3 hunters from Queens
Offer us shelter
Pasta with meat sauce
Exhaustion
Wet
Should we try again tomorrow
This is a test
This is a test
DAY 2
Men boil water
At 5 A.M.
Shoulder their rifles
Then tramp out the door
Through the trees
Up the mountain
To the mists
Wake
On our backs
On a wooden plank
And I ask
What are we going to do
New day
New hope
Try it again
The grass and the marsh
One more time
We’ll find the right trail
To the cabin
The field
Damp grass
Sun shines
Mists rise
Blaze through the swamp
Has the map betrayed us
Has the compass betrayed us
Have we betrayed ourselves
With our doubting nature
And lust for reason
The trail
This has to be the trail
The one we started up yesterday
But seemed to turn in the wrong direction
Along a stream
Not on the map
We’ll follow it for an hour
Marching up
And see where it leads
And up
Bumbling into the unknown
Up!
Up through the muck and the trees
Fallen logs
Mushrooms and ferns
Our boots thick with mud
Up!
Into the heart
Of the final frontier
The great void
All of this that’s here
When we
Are not
Up!
Brows dripping with sweat
Beards damp with dew
Silent
As the fear
Of hunters
And bears
Hunters
And bears
Fades
And our uncertain doom
Swallows us whole
Up!
Down
The trail turns down
Down down down
The rush of waterfalls
Winding further down
The mossy mountain ridge
The lake
The lake
Mountains
And the lake
A flat trail
And a cabin
With bunks
Wind howls
On the open water
Foggy clouds
Swirl
Above the trees
We build a fire
And I stand barefoot
On the shore of
The lake
By the cabin
The outdoors is
Cold
Indifferent
To our presence
But we
Are here
We
Perservere
In the Alaskan
Frontier
And the trees
And the mountains
The mists
And the water
DAY 3
Pit
Pat
Rain on the roof
Rise
In the dark
Stiff socks
Soaked boots
The fire
Is out
Down
To the water
With the pot
Pancake mix
In the dark
A new day
Though the fire
Is out
Hike
Through the woods
By the river
Dwarfed by trees
Flourishing green
Devils club
Membranes
Jutting up
To the light
And dew
Gathered in mushroom bells
Time is gone
From this world
Swallowed
In a dream
Bail water
From the boat
And row across the river
To slink and slurk
The water shore
Fallen logs
Cracked bark
Consumed in blankets
Of moss
Leaves
Playing in the wind
Like piano keys
Water
Lapping
On the rocks
And the constant
Thrush
Of a far-off lost
Waterfall
Singing
Through the mountain ridges
A rope
Leads into the forest
To a wooden table
And a field
Of trampled ferns
Crisscrossed by orange tape
Other men
Have been here too
Long ago
But for what purpose
We’ll never know
As our presence
Will soon fade
Just as well
For Nature
Has no memory
For there is no memory
Without Time
Ghostly mist
Crawls up the river
We sup at camp
Then nap
And later
Row into the lake
Patches of cloud part
Sunbeams
Shoot
Through the sky
Eagles chatter
A hummingbird
Buzzes by
And fish leap and splash
In a place
Meant for poetry
Darkness
Closing in
New fire
Crinkling and crackling
And spitting
In the pit
We linger
On the shore
The lake
Still
The mountains
Blue
Lone soldiers
Painted
Against the landscape
Immense
Thinking
Of thousands of other lakes
Just like ours
Unseen
But there
Out there
In the Dreamscape
Water
Stones
And trees
All far beyond
Our feeble reach
Embers crackle
In the fire
Crinkle and crackle
Drawing our wide gaze
Caressing
Our cheeks
Caked with grease
And grime
Whiskey
Warms our belly
And the trees
The trees and the forest
As darkness
Descends
They are gone
From our sight
But still there
DAY 4
The sun
Sunlight
The sun and blue skies
Boil water on the beach
Oatmeal
Coffee
The sun
Pebbles between my toes
And filth
In my fingernails
And the sky
Is blue
And the lake
Is still
And the sun
And the sun
And the sun
Crash
Crunch
Water splash
In the thicket
A bear?
Hey bear
Beware
You bear
And leave us
Alone
Crash
Splash
And crunch and kerplunk
Hey bear
You stay there
And leave us
Alone
The sun
Blue skies
Wind roars
Cross the lake
Fluttering
The pages
Of my journal
Like ashes flutter
The wind
Wave crests
And the river
The lap
And the slap
And the slaughter
Riverwalk
A rest on a log
Moss moist
On our butts
The trickle
Clear glacier
Melted and drained
Flowing down and away
Like blood
From a vein
A swim
Dive into the water
Where the lake meets the river
Warm and cold mixing
On my bare naked flesh
Sunshine glinting
In sparks and sparkles
On the vast inky deep
Riverwalk
Dinner
Fire
Then a row
To the depths
Lost in time
Mountains
Giants rising
Rowing
Two specks
In a sea
In a dream
Flowing
And growing
Below the mists
Oars creak
All around
There’s Eternity
And Imensity
A void
And an answer
After the end
And before the beginning
The land with no Time
No mind
But a beating organism
Wrapped up as one
Exploding
Still
Forever
And on
Fire crackles
Smoke billows
And the embers glow
As we wait
For the stars
DAY 5
Goodbye
Goodbye, Redoubt Lake
Cabin
Misty mountains
Goodbye to the stillness
And density
Of your serenity
We linger on the shore
And say
Goodbye to you
And farewell
And shoulder our packs
And tromp into the woods
The trail
Now a familiar route
Laced with the melancholy
Of our departure
Every step we take
A step back into Time
And the daily
Machinations
Of our trivial lives
Goodbye, Redoubt Lake
But you are here
In my heart
Growing and growing
We rest at the old spots
The grass marsh
Now empty of fear and doubt
The log and the river
Goodbye
Salmon Lake
The cabin empty
Of hunters
Now ghosts
Among ghosts
Sit on the dock
An eagle swoops
It’s time to go
Time to go
So goodbye
Silver Bay
The boat
Goodbye
Then town
Comes into view
The sun in the sky
And I cock back my head
To breathe in the air
It flows through my hair
And the dock
And the land
And it’s now
A goodbye
So goodbye
Redoubt Lake
So long and adieu
To the woods
And farewell
We’re gone from your sight
But still under your spell
And so long
Misty mountains
And goodbye
Little cabin
Farewell
But we
Will be back
Someday
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