Did the Basque sheepherders find pasture in high meadows west of Carson Pass? Scouting some of the aspen groves, I’ve found lots of bear scratchings, scars from limbs broken off under snow, and carvings – by hikers, campers, motorists, sheepherders? The way I see it, any time among aspens is well spent.
Guardian of the Grove
High in a white-bark aspen
beside mountain meadow,
gazing through the trees, an Owl.
Is he real, or did someone
carve him, or is it just
some natural scarring of the tree?
Or can he be imagination
of a seeker climbing
out of fog to clear sky up above?
He gazes as you wonder. Who
can know the Owl’s
Creator? He’s the guardian of the grove.
~ Taylor Graham
