What Makes the Grizzlies Dance

        June and finally snowpeas 
        sweeten the Mission Valley. 
        High behind numinous meadows
        Lady bugs swarm, like huge 
        lacquered fans from Hong Kong,
        like serrated skirts
        of blown poppies, 
        whole mountains turn red. 
        
        And in the blue penstemon 
        grizzly bears swirl 
        as they bat snags of color
        against their ragged mouths.
        Have you never wanted 
        to spin like that
        on hairy, leathered feet,
        amid swelling berries
        as you tasted a language
        of early summer - shaping
        lazy operatic vowels,
        cracking hard-shelled
        consonants like speckled
        insects between your teeth,
        have you never wanted to waltz the hills 
        like a beast? 


           This poem by Sandra Alcosser,
           from "Except by Nature,".
           Quoted in a profile of the poet by
          Sherri Day,  NYTimes (4/2/2004) 
                      
    

Blue Penstemon is a native plant, a member of the snapdragon family. This one (Penstemon cyaneus Pennell) was photographed in Yellowstone National Park by Christopher Christie on behalf of Range Net, a special project of Western Watersheds Projects, Inc. This is Christie's photo, large size. And here are dozens more (penstemons pics!) I would love to find a photo of grizzley bears (mother and cub) eating berries Denali Park, which I believe was taken by Rex Melton of the Alaska Division of Tourism. But Google does them out and about in fields of wild flowers, blue and otherwise. And one more flower picture: Slender Blue Penstemon in southern Alberta, Canada. Truly beautiful.