Monday, February 15, 2021

High Mountain Juniper


Read "High Mountain Juniper" at The Eldritch Dark:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/234/high-mountain-juniper

The hardy conifers of the genus Juniperus are commonly found at the very edge of tree lines at high elevations, and this haiku from Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) celebrates these remarkable plants.  

It's worth noting that some of the oldest living junipers are found in the Sierra Nevadas, not too far from CAS' hometown of Auburn, California.  A couple of these (the Scofield Juniper and the Bennett Juniper) are both estimated to be well over two thousand years old.  So when CAS describes his "High Mountain Juniper" as being "Mortised in granite aeons", it's no exaggeration!

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