Wolf House
Friends Annie (In My Dreams) and husband Don First lunch... into golden hills Finding our way to the ruins
destroyed by fire We follow the memories...
came for a day visit...
then off to Jack London State Park,
where we stepped back into time...
and the blue branched skies
of Beauty Ranch...
of Jack and wife Charmaine's dream home...
just weeks before it's final construction completed,
in 1913...
Into turrets...
and over thresholds...
where ghosts of the past
gaze once more into their reflections...
Wandering, we witness stone voices
still singing
of hopes and dreams...
sacred ground
forever tumbling into majestic redwoods
emblazoned in
the California afternoon sun...
Tumbled rock...
time opens
through stone arches
and light pours
through shadows...
illuminating
history and stories
confused,
misunderstood,
and not seen
in Day Lilies
that still open in spring
despite
the cauldron of fire
that sparked dreams...
in the Valley of the Moon.
Lea Goode-Harris ©
April 18, 2002
Published in Valley of the Moon
Natural History Association Newsletter
Moonletter ~ July 2002
Note: Jack London passed away three years after the burning of Wolf House in 1916. They say that the fire and destruction of their dream home broke his heart and he died believing that the fire was intentional and in retaliation for his political leanings... In 1995, a forensic team of arson experts found that the cause of the blaze was actually at the main fireplace, where workmen had been cleaning the wood paneling and left a small pile of rags soaked in linseed oil.