A path through the shadowy canyon opens onto a
sunny field, where golden plants tall and slim walk
so slowly they cannot be caught moving.

A rabbit's sensivite ears lift
                             and turn
                                    like radar antennae.

Then I see a small man with a dour face, and a
stout walking stick trudging toward a clearing.

Heidegger, like the Chumash, followed the tracks
of deer and bear, while the trails here are hacked.
Plants and rocks
                             upended,
                   pushed
            aside.

 

 

 

a clearing: "We are a 'clearing,' a Lichtung, a sort of open, bright forest glade into which beings can shyly step forward like a deer from the trees." S. Bakewell, At the Existentialist Cafe. New York, 2016.
Chumash: The Chumash Indians primarily occupied the South-Central Coast of California, "perhaps the densest hunter-gatherer occupation ever to occur anywhere in the world." D.S. Whitney, A Guide to Rock Art Sites: Southern California and Southern Nevada. Missoula MT, 2001.