The Gold Country Roads in California
used to follow the chest and waist of the hills--
they twisted up, around, and down, hill after hill.
Curves were sometimes sharp, short,
and S-shaped, with no shoulders.
Oncoming drivers might be found
on the wrong side of no center line.
Buckeye, willow and toyon planted themselves
alongside the roads and made towers
and buttresses with their branches.
Oak and pine overhung the roads,
and made shadow and light flit
while the leaves brushed passing cars.
These days, new roads lift gentle
curves into and over the rises. Driving
these foothills at any season is no longer
a slow, or slower drive. It’s possible to miss
an entire hillside of pink cleome in bloom
and the ridge of lodge pole pines
where an eagle nests.
David Anderson. A librarian-yearning-to-be-a-poet before retiring from the UC Davis Library, he has published a paraphrase of the Odes of Solomon, a first century Christian songbook, a chapbook Not Made by Hand, and the forthcoming book of poems What Was Within. His poems have appeared in The Adirondack Review, Brevities, California Quarterly, Song of the San Joaquin, Time of Singing, and elsewhere. Reach him through his website, www.DavidCAndersonPoet.com.
used to follow the chest and waist of the hills--
they twisted up, around, and down, hill after hill.
Curves were sometimes sharp, short,
and S-shaped, with no shoulders.
Oncoming drivers might be found
on the wrong side of no center line.
Buckeye, willow and toyon planted themselves
alongside the roads and made towers
and buttresses with their branches.
Oak and pine overhung the roads,
and made shadow and light flit
while the leaves brushed passing cars.
These days, new roads lift gentle
curves into and over the rises. Driving
these foothills at any season is no longer
a slow, or slower drive. It’s possible to miss
an entire hillside of pink cleome in bloom
and the ridge of lodge pole pines
where an eagle nests.
David Anderson. A librarian-yearning-to-be-a-poet before retiring from the UC Davis Library, he has published a paraphrase of the Odes of Solomon, a first century Christian songbook, a chapbook Not Made by Hand, and the forthcoming book of poems What Was Within. His poems have appeared in The Adirondack Review, Brevities, California Quarterly, Song of the San Joaquin, Time of Singing, and elsewhere. Reach him through his website, www.DavidCAndersonPoet.com.