As part of Communal Acts of Beauty I leave poems for hikers along trails. Most often these poems are left within Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. When I started leaving poems, I usually folded them and tucked them into tree knots or nestled within branches. This weekend however, after spending time on the same trails on back-to-back days, I saw that instead of people opening and taking the poem with them, they simply opened the unfolded paper and left it in the same spot for others to read. It’s a beautiful act of re-giving.
Here’s just a few pics of poems left along trails throughout Penasquitos Canyon Preserve in early-September, 2016.
Communal Acts of Beauty 
Thanks Steve. I couldn’t get to the beach today Labor Day, so I walked over to Camino Ruiz Park and down into Penasquitos Canyon. I rarely hike and I was struck by the elegant quiet of the small side trail with its elfin chaparral canopy. The poem you left on the bridge rail, Trough, brought a larger element of beauty to my hike. Thanks. On the way back up I encountered a couple who were about to walk by the same poem and I was able to point it out to them. More beauty spread:)
As I continued home I came up with scraps of poem ideas and I wrote them down and now I’m returning a poem to you.
Canyon Crunch
No need to look up
From the poem-littered trail
I know who’s up there, wheeling
Black rag of desire
Rough scratch of wings on pale air
Tells all: then the crow’s hard call
I climb back up
Solo. With the pendulum swing
Of a half-empty water bottle
Just my crunchy footsteps
Him within it
Me below
Below the sun stained blue
Of this Labor Day sky
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Mark — Thanks very much for the kind note. So glad to hear that you discovered “Trough” on the trail and we’re so moved to create beauty of your own making. Your “Canyon Crunch” words are wonderful. Thank you for sharing in return. — Ever onward, Steve
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