PHOTO ESSAY: Christo's Umbrella Project, California

What a marvelous project!  Seeing the umbrellas was joyful, as if we were all in communion.  They were so beautiful; something a bit comic about it all, too.  Whimsical - although the umbrellas were substantial, the fierce winds of the Gorman pass tore one loose, killing  a woman tourist.

So, that the umbrellas exhibit was closed, not called by rain, but time.

POEM: Talking to a Stone

I would make of you

A river stone, washed and formed

To an oval nearly perfect.

Perhaps one curve swelled

Or an edge roughened still,

Permitting you to know your true stone self

From all the other stone selves,

Perchance you saw reflections

In the river’s time and magic.

You will be smoothed forever

Your surfaces soft and cool

Know your bulk and heft

As your presence parts the flow

Know the density of soul

The weight that grounds.

I would hold you loosely in hand

Then return you to your place.

Privileged to take from the riverbed’s wealth

This sign of earthly power.

The gods overlooked your beauty

But I have not.