20 Poems and 20 Paintings that take a journey from river to ocean, land to sky, outside to inside. You’ll meet Diego Rivera, Henry Miller, and a bumblebee named Chuck, You’ll walk under mountain ranges and fish in the shade of giant apples. You’ll travel in stone boats, shaky cars, and with only your arms for wings. Isn’t it time to put down the ancient copy of Highlights and leave the waiting room of life? Come this way, the clouds will save you now.

Multnomah FALLS

I’ll never forget the family

lugging the bucket of chicken

the lawn chairs, the dogs,

the shouldered coolers

the flip flops, two liters of pop

flash lit smiles, soft mossy laughter,

all eighteen of them

on the way down,

passing Doug and I

as we were a mile into

the hard climb up the

Multnomah Falls trail, in the dark

on a whim one summer night

before we had children and wives

and coolers and dogs

and the biggest bucket

of fried chicken you could buy

in the greater Portland metro area.

I thought I was cool

hiking in the dark,

tell I met my future

on the way down.

How far had they gone?

That trail climbs fifty miles,

all up hill, deep into the mountains.