High Desert Life

Sitting here
in what feels like
the exact same spot
I stare out the window
while sipping on honey tea,
and listen to the high notes of a piano
as it clashes with drums and strings
in the most beautiful way…

When I was looking at this old house the wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour,with gust way over 50 miles an hour.
I couldn`t help but wonder why this house didn`t just blow over,…
Then it sta…

Gratitude
©Jay Ryser

Last year, early on a cold, snowy Christmas morning, before the rest of the family was even considering getting out of their beds, I snuck out of my warm house and went to my favo…

I have posted anything in a while – I hadn’t even pushed the shutter button in 2 weeks. This is always a rough time of year for wildlife photography; the elk rut is long over, the bighor…

Chilling orange winds
criple breathless lungs
in the midst of a dreary
autumn afternoon.
Cracks in the sidewalk
swallow the footsteps and echoes
of our bright summer
memories as a colourless sky
rests, susp…

Dialogue with a Pika
Jay Ryser

Fall is on its way. It’s not only evident by the aspen leaves turning gold, but the alpine tundra turning a glorious shade of red. The change from Summer to Fall…

The Prairie Burrow Companion
Jay Ryser

I’m not a bird-guy. Most of my photography friends are major bird-guys (I should specify that when I say bird-guy, I don’t mean a human-avian hybrid…

It’s been a busy month so far and I haven’t had the chance to stay on top of my writing (I made a commitment to myself to write and publish at least one article every month). I have seve…

The Fox Kit Quest
©Jay Ryser

I like projects; they help keep me focused (pun always intended). One of the reasons I like projects is that I like to keep working a subject, get to know a species of an…

Spring had survived a vicious mountain lion attack, and would undoubtedly have perished …had we not come to the place we did, at exactly the time that we did.

Nothing weighs on
my heart tonight
as I sing and stare
in the fire light.

I look at the stars
how they burn so bright
and I play a guitar
that is tuned just right.

My head in the clouds
at the perfect hei…

Your imagination
seeps notes of a
piano in bass clef;
the hallowed sound
when gentle pressure
closes your eyes.
Take us home
dreamweaver,
pluck the strings
of our hearts
until they beat
in your palms like
hid…

A hole throught the clouds
shows me a home of grace,
while we are all left to suffocate
on the crust of failure.
I wish for purity,
I wish for salvation.
Some one tell me I am
just stuck in a nightmare,
and …

I so dearly miss
those warm summer days.
The ones where our shoulders
didn’t slump from the weight
of the new days to come.
You and I were alive back then,
we shrugged off our worries back then.
But n…

My Holiday Blessing
©Jay Ryser
www.jayryser.com

It’s the day after Christmas as I write this, but the event happened yesterday, Christmas Day. I wanted to write all this down, as soon as possibl…

Slowly the night drips from Heaven’s leaky faucet
while the sun reflects off the full moon outside.
Light gives way to a spectacle of wonder
as constelations of conversation burst in the sky.

Cal…

(2009.SEP.17) —

Three months ago tomorrow, Spring was rescued from certain death on the open range.

Today, for the first time, BLM agents came to inspect Spring’s environment, and to mark…

The Photography Project, Part 1
Jay Ryser

People that know me and work with me know that I’m a big fan of structure and organization. Sure, I can be a little anal sometimes, but I’m also …