Outdoors Collection

Woken up by shaking hand
Pulled outside into the night
Sky so black and vast
Millions of stars dot the sky
Already feeling like one in a trillion
Feeling insignificant
Staring at the skies above
Never ending darkness swallows whole
White sheet of shimmer
Banner waving across the sky
Rainbows in the dark
Terrified to keep looking
Too awed to look away
Standing at the end of the drive
Staring at the fields that go for miles
Watching this banner wave
Swallow up my sky in unearthly beauty
Glad that you woke me up for this
I’m happy to have shared it with you.



There is this place that I went
once as a child in the mountains.
I had to hike to the top of the first peak
and on my back I carried bear spray and
trail mix and a wind jacket.
Thousands of feet up I took a rest and
I looked out over the wilderness.
The fog covered the little town below me
and part of the ocean was covered too.
If I looked up the horizon I saw the volcano
surrounded in clouds just like in the pictures.
But I climbed on to the second peak and
when I reached the top I saw the world.
I wasn’t going to go further to the third peak
for that would take a day to do.
I saw a square rock ahead of me
as I walked to it I saw another hiker come up
the other side and place a smaller rock on the big stone.
I looked to my uncle and I was handed a rock—
small, black, smooth, oval.
I was told to place it there
I wish I could remember why.
Maybe I was leaving my mark
and telling others of my journey up.
Maybe I was participating in an
Alaskan native tradition.
I don’t know.
I remember turning around
sitting on a stone and eating my sandwich.
I remember the fog slowly disappearing
the little town below with tin roofs appearing
out of nowhere and the ocean becoming visible.
I remember feeling refreshed
privileged to be a part of something so beautiful.





I wish I could remember where they were
those mountains with smiling faces imprinted
that only smiled in the summer time.
I think they were in the same area
with the mountains that had dinosaur fossils
that I could see in the side of the mountain wall.
I wish I could remember more clearly my trip
to the top of a mountain with my aunt
when I was younger.
I can recall the flowers, the sun, the trees, the heat,
the sweat, the sweet smell of tree bark and new grasses.
I remember the breeze, soft and warm
and I can still feel the lightness I felt
when I reached the high point.
I can taste the trail mix and grapes
the crispness of water and
I can still see clear as day
the city that lay below us as we
knelt on a fallen tree.
I wish I could go back to the time
when I climbed the big tree in the backyard
or when I swung on the tire swing up in the hills.
I wish I could go back to that park with white trees
and sit in the river and lay in the sun
with my mom and brother.
I wish I could go back to the river in the mountain
where the water was teal and so clear
and the rocks were white
like crystals and there were even aquamarine-colored ones.
I wish I could go back to the swimming pools
that were heated and tasted like salt
and were green and the hotel was famous
I think because a president stayed there.
I wish that I could go back to the playground
back to the swing set
back to the slide and back to the merry-go-round.



I remember being terrified of the vastness
the grandeur
the majesty
the height
the danger
of the mountains I lived in.
I was only afraid in the dark
when I would ride in the window seat
and I would not be able to see the mountain.
I just knew it was there
looming over our car
as if it were going to eat me up.
I always imagined scary cavemen running
out of the woods at our car screaming.
I remember the roads without the guardrails
or the tunnel we always passed through
with too many lanes.
I remember being scared to get stuck in the tunnel
blocked from the world by a landslide.
I remember the mountains.
I remember the beauty.
I remember them.
I remember almost everything.

2050

Did you know that currently the human population is around 6 billion people? The earth's crust can only hold so much weight before it breaks. The more people we add, which is three people born per second, the more weight we add. Why do people insist on having such big families? I understand the religious values of procreation, but honestly people! Get your heads out of the sand! Look around! Do you really need more than two children of your own? There are thousands upon thousands of children that need to be adopted all over the world. Stop being so selfish.
Every second, three people are born > every day 1/4 million people are born > every year 77 million people are born. It is estimated that by 2050, the human population with be between 8.5 and 10 billion people. 10 BILLION PEOPLE. That is crazy! Yet, here we are, congratulating people who have 10 kids or more. Why? I look at those people and think "What are you doing?!" Can these people afford those kids? Not just financially, but emotionally...can these people give love to each child equally? I don't know. Our birth-death rate used to be equal. Now, our birth rate is higher than the death rate. Actually, the death rate does not even come close to matching the birth rate.
If humans continue to grow then we will take over the planet. Natural habitats will disappear. Our food sources will disappear. Our oxygen sources will disappear. Our lands for agriculture will become land for cities and housing developments. Smog will not only be in the biggest cities, but will cover the entire planet. Our planet will look disgusting. Our water undrinkable.
What are we doing? What are we thinking? What kind of world are we preparing for ourselves? For our children? For their children? What will we do to save the planet? What will we do to save our lives?

Sorrow

Growing up being told no.
Hearing that he can’t.
Knowing that he could.
If only he had the support.
Slowly losing the ability to believe.
In himself he loses his heart.
His eyes lose that spark.
He becomes dead inside.
No longer caring about life.
Little boy and young man.
No hope for what lies ahead.
Pain and suffering never expressed.
Growing up being told no.
Hearing that he can’t.
Knowing that he could.
If only he had the support.
If only we had known.
Our words and actions say so much.
We play such big parts in a child’s life.
Never noticing the influence we have.
Knowing that it could hurt.
Not caring if it does.
Learning lessons is hard for us.
Children know more than we think.
Saying no and saying can’t.
Breaking down a child’s dreams.
If only we had listened.
If only we had seen.
Our words meant so much.
Our actions told so much more.
If only he had the support.