Above Hoh Valley
Featured Image: Hoh Valley, courtesy of Olympic National Park
By Tim McNulty
“Above Hoh Valley” originally appeared in Ascendance, 2013
1.
In the late slant of mountain light,
a silver ribbon follows after itself.
River music lifts
through spruce and hemlock
a mile below.
2.
A low sea of cloud
hems the foothills
while a finger of mist
sifts past the first swells or mountain,
drifts upstream.
3.
Along a furrow
in a sandstone wall,
the slightest star-shaped flower
steals something from the southern sky.
4.
Snow trickles in a still pool;
a sheet of glass
widens across the stars.
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Tim McNulty is a poet, essayist, and nature writer based on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Tim has received the Washington State Book Award and the National Outdoor Book Award, among other honors. His most recent book is the collaboration Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain: Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Learn more at timmcnultypoet.com.