Deep Within the Heart of a Mountain My Soul Longs to be...

 

The lady in red is me walking on The Medicine Bow Trail.  The image conveys a lonely feeling to see the vastness of the mountains and how small I am in comparison but I was feeling exuberant and not lonely at all.  There was no place I would rather be then on a mountain top.  I felt like I was close to heaven.  There are so many spectacular views that it is hard to know where to start.  I did not have the resources to document the name of the mountains and the valleys in my photographs.  At Medicine Bow you can see 20 miles of mountain ranges and Wyoming 35 miles away.

Deep Within the Heart of a Mountain...

Deep Within the Heart of a Mountain
My Soul Longs to be...
There's a fire burning,
A passion so deep within my soul
 It blazes like the sun
 With an unquenchable fire
To follow every mountain path
 To Touch the earth's greatest majesties
To see what the eagle sees
In flight over the mountain peaks
and into the valleys below...
By PL Fallin

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow express a love for the sea the way I feel about the mountains:

The Secret of the Sea

Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me
   As I gaze upon the sea!
All the old romantic legends,
   All my dreams, come back to me.

Sails of silk and ropes of sandal,
   Such as gleam in ancient lore;
And the singing of the sailors,
   And the answer from the shore!

Most of all, the Spanish ballad
   Haunts me oft, and tarries long,
Of the noble Count Arnaldos
   And the sailor's mystic song.
  
Like the long waves on a sea-beach,
   Where the sand as silver shines,
With a soft, monotonous cadence,
   Flow its unrhymed lyric lines:--
Telling how the Count Arnaldos, 
    With his hawk upon his hand,
Saw a fair and stately galley,
   Steering onward to the land;--
  
How he heard the ancient helmsman
   Chant a song so wild and clear,
That the sailing sea-bird slowly
   Poised upon the mast to hear,
  
Till his soul was full of longing,
   And he cried, with impulse strong,--
"Helmsman! for the love of heaven,
   Teach me, too, that wondrous song!"
"Wouldst thou,"--so the helmsman answered,
   "Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
   Comprehend its mystery!"

In each sail that skims the horizon,
   In each landward-blowing breeze,
I behold that stately galley,
   Hear those mournful melodies;

Till my soul is full of longing
   For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
   Sends a thrilling pulse through me.

Ranger Meadows Trail at Shadow Lake Dam

Shadow Lake was formed by the dam built on the Colorado River near Lake Grand.  Ranger Meadows Trail loops to the dam and the trail follows the Colorado River south.  There were a lot of wild flowers in the meadows among the tall grasses.

 

 

The Colorado River was wider and deeper at the south end of the dam.  On trails north in the Rocky Mountains, the River waters are shallow and narrow like a creek.

Pristine Ranger Meadows Trail

I really like hiking Ranger Meadows Trail among the tall grass and wildflowers and to be in an environment of pristine wonder.  There were very few humans around and the vastness of the opened meadows was impressive.  I tried to get a panoramic shot but no camera angle could do it justice.

East Shore Trailhead, Shadow Mountain Lake

We hiked the East Shore Trailhead which is 1.5 miles to the Shadow Mountain Trail.  It had a beautiful view of the lake and forest and it intersects with the Ranger Meadows Trail.  We decided to take the Ranger Meadows Trail and loop back to the Colorado River for another 1.5 mile hike. The lake waters appear very calm with it's pastel shades of blue set against a blue sky.  Like 'A Dream Within a Dream".

 

A Dream Within a Dream

  by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow:
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep 
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

 

Edgar Allan Poe:  Born in 1809, Edgar Allan Poe had a profound impact on American and international literature as an editor, a poet, and a critic His stories mark him as one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction. Many anthologies credit him as the "architect" of the modern short story.                              

Spirit's That Form'd this Scene by Walt Whitman

These photos were taken from top of Cedar Heights at Manitou

Springs.  Colorado Springs is on the left side and Pikes Peak is on the right.  It is a fantastic view and the Rocky Mountains are spectacular driving from Pikes Peak to Estes. 

 

In September 1879, Walt Whitman visits Colorado, the farthest west he'd ever get.  While in the three-year-old Centennial State, Whitman rebukes critics of his poetry with this poem.

 

 

Spirit That Form'd This Scene

Spirit that form'd this scene,
These tumbled rock-piles grim and red,
These reckless heaven-ambitous peaks,
These gorges, turbulent-clear streams, this naked freshness,
These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own,
I know thee, savage spirit---we have communed together,
Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of their own;
Was't charged against my chants they had forgotten art?
To fuse within themselves its rules precise and delicatesse?
The lyrist's measur'd beat, the wrought-out temple's grace---
      column and polish'd arch forgot?
But thou that revelest here---spirit that form'd this scene,
They have remember'd thee.

                                       --Walt Whitman

Before the Rain at Garden of the Gods

 

A panoramic view of Garden of the Gods in Colorado, Springs. I took these pictures from the Welcome Center facing the garden.  You can see the rain clouds moving in.  It had been raining daily for a week creating a raging flood in nearby Manitou Springs.  The town was devastated.  We drove through and many stores were still cleaning up from the flood. 

Fat Cat Cafe

 

I am headed in my bright orange shoes to The Fat Cat Café for breakfast. It is my favorite place to dine in the morning and the only place opened for a real Colorado breakfast in Grand Lake.

As Darkness Spreads Across the Mountains

 

I love it at the end of the day when darkness starts to spread across the mountains.  The silhouette of the trees and shadows falling across the mountains is a poet's inspiration.

Horseshoe Bend, South Dakota

One of my trips in South Dakota included a mountain cliff in Fall River County called Horseshoe Bend.

Children's Express Theatre of St. Augustine

The Children's Express Theatre is a performing arts readers theatre for children ages 5 to 17.  I formed the group in September 2012 to fulfill a community need to provide a theatre for children in St. Augustine that was affordable and opened to all children. The local community theatre charges $450 fees for a child to enroll and participate in a theatre production.  Children's Express Theatre is free and opened to all children. It is called 'Express' because we can take our play to different facilities such as nursing homes, assistance living.  Our props are simple like medieval 'street performers'.  Express Theatre has performed at various functions such as a dinner and talent show, Christmas Party, Christmas Eve Service, Children's Moment at Shores UMC, and End-of-year Exploring LIFE Program. They have performed 5 plays during the 2012-2013 school year:

• Call 911
• Daniel, Daniel He's Our Man
• A Shepard's Night
• The Two Little Pigs
• Shipwrecked

The pictures below are from a performance of  'Shipwrecked' at Shores UMC.  The story was about the Apostle Paul being a prisoner and taken to Rome by ship to stand trial in the middle of a terrible storm and were shipped wrecked on Malta. There were over 10 children participating in speaking and non speaking roles, ages 5 to 17.

 

 

They are currently rehearsing 'Rip  Roarin' a 5 act play about the wild western frontier town of Dirt Clod and that dastardly dirty Darlene. They will be performing the play over a five day period July 29 through August 2 for the SonWest Roundup VBS.

They will also perform the final act for Shores UMC in August.  I will be doing a summer camp the last week in June to rehearse stage movement, working on props, and memorizing lines. 

A Sea Bird's Paradise Cumberland Sound

 

At Cumberland Sound the beach was covered with seabirds and their nests.  The sky, ocean and beach was painted in watercolor shades of blue and beige.  The fishing pier was the longest pier I have ever walked.  A family of Dolphins were swimming close to the bridge diving in and out of the water.  This is a place I plan to return, time and time again.  It was breath taking seeing so much sea life in one place.

 

To A Sea Bird (Santa Cruz 1869)

 

Sauntering hither on listless wings,
Careless vagabond of the sea,
Little thou heedest the surf that sings,
The bar that thunders, the shale that rings,-
Give me to keep thy company.

Little thou hast, old friend, that 's new;
Storms and wrecks are old things to thee;
Sick am I of these changes, too;
Little to care for, little to rue,-
I on the shore, and thou on the sea.

All of thy wanderings, far and near,
Bring thee at last to shore and me;
All of my journeyings end them here:
This our tether must be our cheer,-
I on the shore, and thou on the sea.

Lazily rocking on ocean's breast,
Something in common, old friend, have we:
Thou on the shingle seek'st thy nest,
I to the waters look for rest,-
I on the shore, and thou on the sea.

By Francis Bret Harte

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1837 - May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, who worked in a number of different professional capacities including miner, teacher, messenger and journalist before turning to full time writing in 1871. 
Bret Harte moved to California in 1853 and spent part of his life in a mining camp near Humboldt Bay (the current town of Arcata), a setting which provided material for some of his works. While The Luck of Roaring Camp (published in 1968) made Bret Harte famous nationwide and helped him to land a writing contract with a publisher in 1871, he faltered and was without a contract by 1872. In 1878 Bret Harte was appointed as United States Consul in Krefeld, Germany and then to Glasgow in 1880. He spent thirty years in Europe, moving to London in 1885. He died in England of throat cancer in 1902. Bret Harte's literary output improved while he was in Europe and helped to revive his popularity. The Outcasts of Poker Flat and Tennessee's Partner join The Luck of Roaring Camp on the list of his influential works.

Fiery Sky over Matanzas River

Matanzas River after sunset glows like a smoky fiery sky.  Reminds me of the book "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.  A hometown girl like me from Columbus, Georgia. Listed below are some quotes from the book.

 

“The Heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of anothers fire...driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there's no sign of love in sight!”

 

“In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.”  

 

“I´m a stranger in a strange land.”  

 

“the way i need you is a loneliness i cannot bear.” 

 

 Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American writer of novels, short stories, plays, essays and poetry. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the U.S. South. Her other novels have similar themes and are all set in the South. She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia, in 1917. Her mother was the granddaughter of a plantation owner and Confederate war hero. Her father, like Wilbur Kelly in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was a watchmaker and jeweler of French Huguenot descent. From the age of ten, Lula took piano lessons. When she was fifteen, her father gave her a typewriter on which to compose stories.  Carson McCullers was one of the leading female writers of southern gothic fiction in the twentieth century. 

Her last published book, a collection of poems for children:  Sweet as a pickle and clean as a pig

Unfortunately, not many people will ever have a chance to read her poetry since the only copies are between $99 to $125 each.

 

Mala Compra Beachfront

 

On Memorial weekend, I hiked the Oceanfront Trail at Mala Compra Beachfront Park.  The first picture is of the Old Coast Guard Road.  It was hot and hiking a hot sandy road is not enjoyable.  The beach was covered in black rocks and made a nice image of the waves rolling over the rocks.  Surprisingly it was not that crowded for a holiday weekend but there were not many parking spaces at the park so it control the crowding of the beach.