a new year is coming soon

To the Consolations of Philosophy

by W. S. Merwin

Thank you but

not just at the moment

I know you will say

I have said that before

I know you have been

there all along somewhere

in another time zone

I studied once

those beautiful instructions

when I was young and

far from here

they seemed distant then

they seem distant now

from everything I remember

I hope they stayed with you

when the noose started to tighten

and you could say no more

and after wisdom

and the days of iron

the eyes started from your head

I know the words

must have been set down

partly for yourself

unjustly condemned after

a good life

I know the design

of the world is beyond

our comprehension

thank you

but grief is selfish and in

the present when

the stars do not seem to move

I was not listening

I know it is not

sensible to expect

fortune to grant her

gifts forever

I know

A Wordle of Great Basin A&E

Toiyabe Range

This is the eastern wall of the Toiyabe Range, looking SSW, as seen from Highway 50 about 12 miles east of Austin. On the map below the spot would be very near the intersection of U.S. Highway 50 and Nevada Route 376.


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Red Cat Records

So I was digging around in my files, and found this.

If the Red Cat were still with us, it would just now be preparing to celebrate the end of its 10th year. Gone but not forgotten.

Big Rocks

Chocolate Mountain, Santa Rosa Range, Humboldt County, Nevada
October 7, 2009


















Hinkey Summit, Santa Rosa Range, Humboldt County, Nevada
October 10, 2009

Took these photos during three trips to the Santa Rosa Range. My friend Stuart invited me to help out with a photography field trip for his class at Great Basin College. We went out on "scout" trips twice to find a good location for a large group. Then we took about 18 people out to one location we'd found in the mountains, and then on the way back to town spent some time in Paradise.

This sounds like much more of a report, than a story....argh...


Try the full screen feature.

Austin Summer of 2009

This is the nearly the longest time I have ever gone between posts. Just too much life and not enough time for creativity.

I spent today judging photos at the county fair, or the Tri-County Fair. This is interesting work. You get to claw your way through a huge pile of mounted photos that range from the sublime to the truly awful.

People tend to enter photographs that they have some sort of emotional connection with, or that evoke a fond memory, no matter what the subject matter or quality of the image.

Our job was to score each one independently, and then write some notes, constructive suggestions, on how the image might be improved, to "offer the entrants encouragement".

It was with this in mind that I chose my own image, above, to post today. This picture, while rather poorly done, represents my current, confused, state of mind. It was captured in Austin Nevada 7/26/2009 when I was on my way to a meeting in Ely.

Sacred Ground

Inspiration - Illumination


















We sent our brother John Allen off in a manner he would have fully appreciated. A wake filled with his spirit, his friends, his artwork & totems, and his writings & poetry. Conversation, music, singing & dancing, smiles & tears, and hugs. The land, the wind and the sun.

Home was filled with small children of all sizes playing hide-and-seek on the stairways and in the doors.

The moon, and then fireworks, and likely some gunfire off in the distance.

We spread his ashes over his 80 acres. These lands along the White River hold a powerful medicine, and now he has joined with it.

John Allen Sims
Born: Troy, Alabama September 29, 1948
Died: Chadron, Nebraska January 12, 2009

Look at more photos

John Allen's Blog - Mind over Matters