NEW MOUNTAIN SNOW...

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in mean invincible summer..." -Albert Camus

"That's what winter is: remembering how to still yourself, and then come pliantly back to life..." -Ali Smith
              rainforest....Mist...quiet

"When there's snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds..." -Takayuki Ikkaku

"Melancholy were the sounds on a winter's night..." -Virginia Wolf
 
“Snow was falling, so much like stars filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness.”

- Mary Oliver

In winter.......look up , far up, into the mountains...

"It was a black and white day of frost..." -Robert S. Hichens

                                       

“Christmas ghosts visit

rearranging emotions
tears waltz among smiles”
- Susie Clevenger

         "There is a wilder solitude in winter..."-May Sarton

                                     

“Rain-diamonds, this winter morning, embellish the tangle of unpruned pear-tree twigs; each solitaire, placed, it appears, with considered judgment, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds—the indivisible shared out in endless abundance.” —Denise Levertov

"I am a book of snow, a spacious hand, an open meadow, a circle that waits. I belong to the earth and its winter..." 

                                                             -Pablo Neruda

Photographs 2026 Mt Washington range February 2026, Campbell River, B.C.

DO NOT PASS BY...

THE SOLITARY WAFARER by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 

from "Gitanjali", published in 1913

In the deep shadow of the rain, 

with secret steps,

You walk, silent as night....

                                                           

eluding all watchers.

Today the morning has closed its eyes, heedless of the insistent calls

                                                          

                          of the loud east wind....

...and a thick veil has been drawn

                                                                

                        over the ever wakeful blue sky.

The woodlands have hushed their songs,

                                                             

                          and doors are shut at every house.

You are the solitary wayfarer in this deserted street.

                                                          

oh, my only Friend,

my best Beloved,

                                                               

the gates are open in my house...

                                               Do not pass by......

                                                           

Like a Dream.....

 Photographs 2026. Last two pics from Elk Falls, posted with permission from Morgan W.

Campbell River, B.C.

TRANQUIL SOLITUDE...

REFUGE by Lew Sarett (1888-1954)

When stars ride in on the wings of dusk,

                                                Out of the silent plain,

After the fevered fret of day,

                                     I find my strength again.

Under the million friendly eyes

                               That smile...

in the lonely night...

            Close to the rolling prairie's heart,

Out where the cool long winds blow free,

                                                 I fling myself...

on the sod:

                       And there.....          

                                    in the tranquil solitude

 I find my soul...

                                         ...and God.

Photographs 2026

 Lew Sarett's poems are in the public domain. An American author, outdoorsman, and teacher . Check out some of his writing collections, including: "Many Many Moons 1920", "the Box of God 1922" and 

"Slow Smoke 1925"