Trails Challenge 2014 Diary: San Francisco Bay Trail, San Leandro


Date:  03-16-2014
Distance Completed:  4 miles
Date: 03-19-2014
Distance Completed: 3 miles
Trail Condition:  Excellent
Beautiful Distraction from Hiking:  Birds


Bird 


It was passed from one bird to another,
the whole gift of the day.
The day went from flute to flute,
went dressed in vegetation,
in flights which opened a tunnel
through the wind would pass
to where birds were breaking open
the dense blue air -
and there, night came in.

Red-winged Blackbird
When I returned from so many journeys,
I stayed suspended and green
between sun and geography -
I saw how wings worked,
how perfumes are transmitted
by feathery telegraph,
and from above I saw the path,
the springs and the roof tiles,
the fishermen at their trades,
the trousers of the foam;
I saw it all from my green sky.


I had no more alphabet
than the swallows in their courses,
the tiny, shining water
of the small bird on fire
which dances out of the pollen.



Poem by Pablo Neruda
Photos by Alice Odena

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