Williwaw

it is about the light.

an expanse that breathes wide

up mountainside to ridgeline across alpine

field studded with lichen-red rocks

down scree slope long slip glide along

deep lake & black lake still snow-rimmed

to straight drop of raven granite

fanning to wash of rock & supine berries

to cerulean chain of slope-encircled lakes.

it is the light

glinting off cobalt pool

bouncing from rock spire to

sheep grazing far emerald hillside

illuminating the tips of horns

on one niveous atop cliff streaming

cloud-plummet waterfall.

penetrating multi-hued mountainside

rivulets of bright newgreen

meld to deepened green & blend

to golden to crimson.

embracing silver strand stream

descending downvalley

& purple sap-tipped hemlock cones

scribing season’s transmutation

with each pearled drop.

light

mediating fields awash in tasseled grass

to burn luminous amber, a fire

that must be what Moses saw:

the burning bush, burnished light,

the light, the light, the light.