‘Approaching Spring’ and Other Poetry by Neal Dachstadter

Approaching Spring

Above the mountain, under the sky,
Canadian Geese, you hear their cry,
Over the mountain, hear them sing,
Man and Wife, approaching Spring.

Charge to Orion

Gird thy blade and tighten belt
Spurred unswayed by heights not felt
Betelgeuse and Rigel fire
Nimble Lepus; he shall tire

Lepus: Hare pursued by Orion

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Muir and Mountain

Mountains calling I must go
Valley falling, sage and beau
Countless cactus, time unstained
Desert trackless, clime unfeigned

Indebted to John Muir’s “The mountains are calling and I must go”
Photo of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument by Ajo Arizona

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All photos by Karwendelbilder.

Neal Dachstadter is a poet living in Tennessee.  His work has been printed in Decanto Poetry Magazine (UK), Western Viewpoints and Poetic Images: the Great American West (Woodinville, Washington), Society of Classical Poets Journal 2015 (Mt Hope, New York), Rocky Point Times (Puerto Peñasco, Mexico) and The Lyric (Jericho, Vermont).  A member of the Demosthenian Literary Society at the University of Georgia, he deployed to Hawija, then wrote on Lookout Mountain, continuing with Delta Kappa Epsilon International.  Berkeley, Ann Arbor, and Athens encouraged him as a writer.  In 2015 he wrote in Arizona at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument five miles north of Mexico.