Ode to Surprise Valley

It's not like joy, exactly,
Although joy's wrapped up in it.
It's not as easy to praise
Surprise--surprise goes both ways.
There are people who hate it,
And that feels appropriate 
In this valley named for it,

Where mountains reveal themselves
To be sand dunes, the dry floor
Becomes a great lake in spring,
Basalt cliffs are picture shows
By the abandoned pit house
Whose stones make a faery ring
Around their ancient pinyon.

Everything here is replete
With sharp opportunity,
From the seasonal wetlands,
The steaming plumes of hot springs,
The high ranch ponderosas,
To the huge pipeline project
Being dragged over the pass.

There's an old schoolhouse here
In which some folks from 'Frisco
Have planted King Lear's great chair
And announced the house a home.
The memories for us here,
Are as peculiar, wondrous,
Human as that, as surprise.