This past weekend, we hosted a shelter-building workshop to work on outdoor skills, grow our connection to Earth, and build community. It was a small event but we had a great time. The photo here shows what we built at the base of a mother Cedar tree.
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Editorial note: this poem by our good friend and fellow DGR member William Falk is about the drought affecting California — but Washington State has just experienced it’s warmed winter on record, and now more than half of the state is experiencing official drought conditions.
My California Drought
By Will Falk
there’s water, at least, on the coast and that’s where I’m heading
when stopped near Petaluma, California a sunburnt sign hangs over a vineyard celebrating a family insurance business’s longevity
the phrase, “through the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and seven wars” is typed under the smiling faces of men in uniform
maybe it’s my own depression or personal poverty that make me ponder my own longevity
that force me to the ocean during these times of drought
I don’t know, but the brown coats of sheep are sprinkled like dust on the tree-less voids they call hill-sides
what once flowed through here left cattle to settle like pebbles in the washed-out roadbed
the vultures are thirsty winos circling the vines by the time they get there they’ll find only raisins
the wars I’ve seen are water wars and they dry my vision leaving me to believe wet is only an illusion
that’s not even blood flecked on the feathers of red-winged blackbirds perched uneasily on a barbed-wire fence
This poem was originally published at the San Diego Free Press.