Accidental Poetry

I accidentally wrote a poem while getting lost on a new trail today. It is probably a good thing I was hiking alone, because I imagine I looked pretty silly hiking and emailing myself lines of poetry as I found my way back to my car. Three hours, and many miles later, this is what I had in my inbox. Rocky Mountain shadows, by the fold of the Great Plains --- Lumbering bear’s doorstep, in the aspen grove white --- Glaciers speak and babble, fumbling over Pikes Peak’s might --- Ramparts of snow on rocky crags precipitate --- Dusty moths flutter, and then freeze by alpines eve night --- Elk and mule deer dance on our forefather’s frontier --- Big horns butt like Zeus’s bolts do roll --- Timid and tame, wild and free --- Canyons and crevasses, boulders and bluffs --- Owls question passage; who, who? --- Delicate and brutal, all within lines sight --- Inviting and frightening; lived on and in, but never owned --- Boom towns and ghost towns; calm and fury and fortune and naught --- Thin air, thick wills, brave diligences --- The summit wind whispers New Colossus, a call from East for West --- Manifest destiny, a hope as the Pacific sun sets