The Narrative Image

  Mt. Adams as seen from the Cooper Spur shelter ( Mt. Hood ) on 09-22-12 Mt. Hood ’s lengthening shadow, straining for the eastern horizon  Smoke from the fire doing a pretty fair impersonation of clouds   The timberline trail spirals on around the mountain  Toyed with the idea of composing a shot here, but Lola the dog was feeling territorial  Mt. Adams beyond the shelter  Mt. St. Helens   As night falls, the source of the smoke becomes evident  The scale of the fire is slowly revealed as the sky gets darker  An inferno about the size of a mountain  Swirling winter clouds ride autumn’s cool night air into the valley, like circling predators patiently waiting for a flickering campfire to go out.  Detailed information about the fire can be found here:  http://inciweb.org/incident/3249/

  Mt. St. Helens from Clearwater Viewpoint. The original question was, did I know of any good hikes that would showcase fall foliage… …which makes it hard to understand how I arrived at the Norway Pass trailhead, a landscape that intermittently looks as if it has been decorated by nuclear explosions. The first part of the trail ascended the shadowed side of a ridge that provided just enough cover to keep huckleberries cool to the taste.  Boundary Trail #1 dances on the ridges surrounding Mt. St. Helens ’ northern blast perimeter. Some patches of scrubby vegetation are sensitive to the season and erupt in fire-like reds and yellows. Unexpected landscapes evoke the sensual: Lush grass meadows of the Alps , fresh goat’s milk, and Heidi’s sweet-smelling bed in her grandfather’s hayloft. Warm fingers of light dry my sweaty brow, and confronted with such beauty, I dare to search the heavens for some promise that the god of deluges will ...

Calm and peaceful hike But I have to ask myself Why are trees hiding? Spring’s promise of life Takes on sarcastic shadings Before fall’s hammer A blanket melted One of life’s loopholes exposed Deep-cover agents Puffy land-clouds float Hide their dangerous orange teeth Until the sun sets A bsentee ‘landlord’ Occasionally peeks down “Now what have they done?” Stacked layers recede Layer after layer like Some Japanese print Warm air envelope Nurturing my slow ascent Laughs and disappears Cold knives slice at clothes At the edge of the moraine And yet we linger Why put these dreamscapes In a land where nothing lives Where only fools see? The shadow stretches From this vast mountain sundial Marking time for stars

4. And the Lord said unto Moses, “This is the land I promised you, but you shall not enter. Psych.” 5. And Moses died. DEUTERONOMY  (as paraphrased by Shalom Auslander in The Foreskin’s Lament) I wanted to talk to God the other day. I thought it should be possible because on any given Sunday, if I go to my church, the respectable people of my community are gathered there addressing God as ‘father’ and there’s a kind of script they hand out that even gives you appropriate words to pray. Sometimes there is even a collective petition – they all kind of do this choral speaking thing - usually to ask for health related things. So it isn’t just some isolated crazies carrying on one-sided conversations on the sidewalks of downtown Portland who talk to God…it’s all those adults who watched you grow up and who made you go to Sunday school and who otherwise seem completely rational. What I wanted to talk about was the way people you love eventually get old, and t...