This is a real place
I carry
in imagination
like cool water
in a canteen.
Near my home
on the margins of the desert
high refuge
edge of beginnings
mountains to my back
I climb the first tall hills
past sheltered saskatoon bushes
then flat cacti
to the top
drink in dusty prairie
with my eyes
hear benediction
from the hawk
thousands of feet above me
circling
feel release
in the wind and
whisper of tall grass
the powdery dry smell
of yellow clay dust
and hot sage.
I see the round horizon
through the hawk's eyes
murmer "come closer"
and it hovers
over my sunstruck eyes
wings spread
barely moving
in the bright
burnt
blue
sky.
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5 comments:
This is really perfect. It may seem that way to me because I have similar memories (although "flatter" ones, having lived further east than you did at that time!). It really is the BIG SKY that looms almost mythically huge in those memories. Must be a prairie thing. The sky just isn't as awesome here. Is it?
And the heat. That dry, seared desert heat (I feel August) does burn the sky, doesn't it?
The horizon's definitely a lot higher -- tree top level at least -- in these parts.
And Lucy;
In aid of stretching out your celebration at least a little longer, Happy Birthday!
Thank you, Coyote.
I'm frantically looking for a map, the painting is coming out on it's own but it needs a map. Not a bright one, full of things, just a plain map with faded out lines in colour. If you have something could you Please email it to me.
Oddly, this is turning into quite a complicated quest. But I'm on it.
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