© Mike Yost
Tag Archive for ‘Mountains’
Shadow Summit
© Mike Yost
Tumbling in the Wind
© Mike Yost
A Boy and His Horse
I bought the truck from some guy up in Greeley. Cash in hand. The owner wore a white cowboy hat and held a firm handshake. Mid-sized truck with a toolbox in the bed. Manual transmission. 4X4. Exactly what I wanted. I named the truck Cthulhu.
Cthulhu is a bit old. Over 200,000 miles. The air conditioner doesn’t work. His frame groans when driving over ditches, though he never complains about his aching bones.
Cthulhu is a bit beat up. Massive dents like the surface of the moon. A door handle that broke off long ago. Claw marks along the side from a massive tree on a narrow road that was more rocks than road.
But Cthulhu has heart, grit, and fortitude. He attacks each mountain pass with the loud growl from a rusting muffler. He jerks the steering wheel out of my hand, driving us off onto a dirt road—any dusty path that’s far away from hot asphalt.
I bounce around in the cab of the truck with a broad smile as we ricochet across washboard roads walled by trees and steep cliffs. The windows are cranked all the way down, and I can smell earth. Radio off. Wild wind whirling about the cabin with dust that swirls and burns bright in the sunlight.
We rest inside a thick nest of evergreens, split apart by a babbling stream that rolls down distant hills. Cthulhu sits covered in dust—and he smiles, having escaped the heat and chaos of crowded city streets. I lay down nearby in the shade of aspens that shake in the breeze.
I wonder if those vagabonds who wandered through the Rocky Mountains with only their horse felt the same way. A silly notion perhaps. The fondness of a steed with oil for blood. A steel horse with a heart of fire named Cthulhu.
I close my eyes, and we listen to the serpentine wind glide through the treetops.
© Mike Yost
Lost Amidst Misty Mountains
© Mike Yost
Amidst Misty Mountains
© Mike Yost
Piercing the Sky
© Mike Yost
Rocky Mountain High
© Mike Yost
Echoes of the Mine
© Mike Yost
Beneath the Mist
© Mike Yost
We Are As Clouds
We are as brief as clouds
Adrift and deeply wounded
We shed cold tears upon the surface of ancient rock
Carving ravines into the face of the Earth with our lament
To then vanish like smoke, tumbling and spiraling beneath a burning sun
© Mike Yost
No Vacancy (Unless You’re a Bat)
© Mike Yost
Clouds without Chaos
© Mike Yost
a lonely road brightened by a far-flung star
© Mike Yost
Vast
The Earth slowly turns its back
On a distant, dancing Sun
While serpentine winds
Drag clouds into oblivion
The weight of the sky
Fading black
Feels heavier
Feet held to rock beneath
I stretch my hands above
Eyes closed
Falling into the vast
© Mike Yost
. . . and for whom?
“Over the river, the shining moon; in the pine trees, sighing wind;
All night long so tranquil-why? And for whom?”
-Hsuan Chueh
© Mike Yost
Wandering Within
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
-Tolkien
© Mike Yost
Let it Settle
© Mike Yost
From Afar
Photograph copyright Mike Yost 2017
Sinking into the Sky
Photograph copyright Mike Yost 2017
Out of Range
Photograph copyright Mike Yost 2017
Wanderlust
Home is where the trail
Leads me into the unknown
To wander endlessly
With tired legs
And weary lungs
Carrying a smile not found
Within the city’s sprawling grasp
Photograph and Word Scribbles copyright Mike Yost 2017
Dusk
Photograph copyright Mike Yost 2017
As Big as Mountains
Photograph copyright Mike Yost 2017
Ancient Observer
This ancient observer
Mute and steadfast
Floating high above the horizon
Circling the firmament
For billions of years
Watching the dinosaurs fall silent beneath a cloud of ash
Watching civilizations spring out of open fields and spill across vast oceans
Watching the bones of those we love sink back into the Earth
Apathetic to our own toils
Indifferent to our own queries
To our universal questions of meaning and purpose
Pulled to the surface under a canopy of distant stars
Questions unanswered by this mute and steadfast witness
This silent companion of our home planet
Suspended in a peaceful tapestry
High above the horizon
Photograph and Prose copyright Mike Yost 2017