MOUNTAIN HAIKU

For Grant Ferrier


the old deacon spruce
was grim but its new greens laughed
as they slapped me wet

that clawed-up aspen's
so old even its bear is
some fifty years dead

aspens in the pond
shimmer off - don't know down like
the real ones know up

this tall quiet place
was the library when all
the books were still trees

here in these meadows
it's the ants, not the mountains
that make me feel small

to get a life go
into the woods and look for
the map of a tree

— George Sibley 2005©