PINE VALLEY PSALM: A LOVING PAEAN TO UTAH
By David Lee
Photography: VisitUtah.com
Laughter is also a form of prayer
— Søren Kierkegaard
Right here, Lord,
tether me to my shadow
like a fat, spavined mule
stuck sideways in tankmud
bawling for eternity.
At midnight,
when the stars slip their traces
and race the moon like wild horses
to their deaths in the darkness,
let my hoarse song twine with the nightwind.
Then bright dawn
sparkling Pine Valley creek
conjures a tiny rainbow
its colors so bright
you’d swear they chimed.
Jaysquawl, coffeeboil
and Fred’s rattlesnake-killing cat
at the screen door marawling
to get in for a bellyrub and
lapnap in the granny chair:
What indeed can Paradise enow?
May the bray
of today’s laughter fall
like a pitchy topbranch from a tall yellow pine
straight down like winter sleet
to the mountain’s bent and trembling knees.
David Lee, Utah’s first poet laureate, is in advanced training to achieve his goal of becoming a world-class piddler.
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