Just out in California Quarterly, my poem as tribute to Edward Abbey-

Abbey’s Gift

by Pamela Biery

Edward’s words

sear images into my eyes
making me yearn
for the widest spaces this planet
still offers
and call out
for the wild ones lurking
in the brush
and beg
to lie on the hard earth,
searching the sky.

Not too late
perhaps to save
a few river miles
surrounded by
Glen Canyon green
dipping water ouzels
and suspended,
temporary surety
of a river
still flowing
free.

Green remains,
but Edward and
the Glen Canyon
are gone.

A shadow dances
across the water
A fish? A leaf?
Racing with the current,
down the riffle,
into deep pools
swirling, twisting
out of sight
but present
as surely as
this passing day.