Yosemite: A Triptych
by Mark A. Fisher
| once I went to Yosemite | to see rocks and | once to see the trees |
| where wildflowers could | feel the vast time | immense and ancient |
| fill all the meadows | with moraines | filling the valley |
| hollowed out and | left by glaciers | lichen covered |
| grown green | fading away | Mother nature |
| drawing thousands | forgetting | the wilderness |
PHOTO: Yosemite Valley, California. Photo by Pablo Fierro on Unsplash
NOTE: Yosemite National Park, located in central-eastern California, is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the 758,436-acre park is designated wilderness. About four million people visit Yosemite each year, and most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864. John Muir led a successful movement to have Congress establish a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mark A. Fisher is a writer, poet, and playwright living in Tehachapi, California. His poetry has appeared in riverbabble, Spectrum, Silver Blade, Penumbra, Lummox, and many other places. His first chapbook, drifter, is available from Amazon. His second, hour of lead, won the 2017 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest.
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