Susan Tichy
Expression of Facts
On maps, some trails appear as roads
Snow fields melt before winter, glaciers not
The aspen leaf in autumn matches the blackbird’s eye
This is not the place to discuss technique
Famous teas come from high mountains
The crest of the range is seabed
Thomas Hardy called open spaces ballast
At every switchback, the view changes
Cape Wrath does not mean wrath, but turning point
‘In a black bank I found a white stone’
In old photos the slopes are treeless
Cut and burned down to their skins
Han Shan wrote his poems on rocks and trees
Li Po got his songs off cabaret girls from the mountains
Tea-masters call boiling water wild
It is possible to read by moonlight, but not possible to see color
This snow will melt before morning
When they found Mallory’s body, everything in his pockets was readable
In some boulder fields you can stand in dust
And listen to creek water under your feet
‘Crystallized song means stabilized song’
No skeletons were found in the Marble Caves
For winter grass the mountain sheep is wholly dependent on wind
‘Armies climb riverbanks’
In one place an avalanche filled the valley, then ran up the opposite slope
In every country wrens are noisy
Thoreau was a pencil-maker’s son
Susan Tichy’s most recent books are Gallowglass (2010) and Bone Pagoda (2007), both from Ahsahta Press. She teaches at George Mason University, and otherwise makes her home in a ghost town in the Colorado Rockies.