Nothing Flows for Free #californiadrought #poetry

I grew up on a river  no longer does it  flow  like so much else where it’s  gone no one knows I cut my teeth on a river ran freely to the sea blind men’s bluff was once a game I’m cynical can’t you see I tossed my sorrows on the river actually there are

All the Leaves are Brown #californiadrought #watershortage

days of drought catch the rain in a jar each drop precious * price of admission turn fresh produce into weeds highest bidder I continue to read ridiculous reports of fights for water in California. I drive through the Central Valley and see new vineyards cropping up and the dairy industry, walnut, almond, pistachio orchards

Everything has a Price #water #ag #california #poetry

Comrades come and gather round we have found water in your thirsty ground precious as it is to you we will sell it back it’s true grow your crops or let them die what is it to us if hungry children cry *** Pictures speak 1000 words. These pictures are within miles of each other

No Harvest This Year #california #drought #haiku

out to pasture headed for the city furrows of weeds cattle and corn crops on the horizon a good year The prompt for Carpe Diem “Harvest Dusk” brought a tear to my eye. The harvest season is upon us but there are only weeds to harvest. If you haven’t heard, California has not only had

Things of the Past #agriculture #dpchallenge #drought

  oiled plows turned the ground anticipating harvest  Once full of life wheat fields clapped their hands cattle gossiped in the stalls tractors slowed traffic we rose before the sun greeting the day’s challenge rusty hinges no longer squeak children no longer milk cows our food is imported   The prompt for the daily post photo challenge

photo-challenge-abandoned #haiku #photography #agriculture

busy yesterdays windmills talking to the sky today – silent hinges Today’s prompt for the photo challenge is Abandoned. I think there is beauty and sadness in the abandoned barns in the Central Valley. Discover beauty and mystery in these works of photography: Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned | Journeyman Weekly. Photo Challenge: Abandoned | Journeyman

Fresh! #agriculture #poetry #photography

They’ve made sunshine artificial cellophane contains rainforest mist we tread never ending stairway all that’s living sorely missed * music tuned on rounds of plastic nature sneers in futility baulks nothing here really matters our food source comes fresh from a box * green is just another color nothing in the dirt is real silk

Conflicted #poetry #photography

I stand in a wedge of conflict between the familiar now old  white washed plastic new and cold * I behold a world slipping away horses, fields tractors  only on display The cavernous barns where we once climbed are now derelict   broken, gray in decline * a world that was wild once free and

Celebrate the Harvest Moon (Meigetsu) #haiku #poetry

golden face glow life stirs beneath your smile ready for harvest * celebrate harvest kids laughter in hay wagon stew on the fire * We lived in an agricultural area for years. How fun to celebrate the end of harvest by a bonfire of cornstalks and walnut limbs while the kids went on a moonlight

Anticipating spring #haiku #poetry #agriculture

Green you await me flourishing with spring’s new life like a blushing bride * like a blushing bride you anticipate new growth a new fertile year * a new fertile year smiles full of gratitude inhaling life The beauty of green paddy fields, the anticipation of a good year even  before the planting has begun.