Ming Sha Shan

I have heard
The ocean’s sigh
And witnessed
Ripples on its shores
The shushing waves
Left in repose

I have heard
The mountain’s cry
And witnessed
Cliffsides and steep slopes
The thrusting earth
Left in repose

But in a desert
Far from home
I heard the singing
Of the sands
Saw mountains rise
Saw rippling land

All the while
The desert sang
The earth did dance
The heavens rang
For shifting sands
Know no repose

Ming Sha Shan
The Mountains of Singing Sands
Dunhuang
Gansu Province, China

Taken during travels, 1998

This post is a response to Jennifer Nichole Wells’ brilliant and ongoing photo prompts, One Word Photo Challenge. This week’s challenge is Sandstorm.

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1

jamborobyn on Jul 8, 2015 at 7:46 am
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speaking to my heart there

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- 2
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 8, 2015 at 7:57 pm
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  Mmmm… good to know. Thank you.
  
  This one speaks to me in ways I didn’t grasp while writing it. : )
  
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    jamborobyn on Jul 8, 2015 at 8:55 pm
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    Know the feeling, it happens to me all the time 😉
    
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      Patrick Jennings on Jul 8, 2015 at 8:57 pm
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      <grin> Oh yes, all the time. Often it takes someone else to point it out — as happened earlier today regarding a certain story about a robot and his boy. 😉
      
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Jennifer Nichole Wells on Jul 8, 2015 at 1:18 pm
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Really beautiful. I love your desert images. Wonderfully composed, and extra intriguing because I’ve never been to an area like that.

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  Patrick Jennings on Jul 8, 2015 at 7:55 pm
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  Thank you, Jennifer, as always.
  
  The desert … I have a love for it, an affinity. Visually … there is no more poignant landscape, no place which evokes so many possible meanings, or such an array of details to shoot. Any visit to a desert is an emotional, spiritual and visual feast. Photographing deserts is a delight.
  
  I think, given the way your attention to detail defines your miniature work, you would fall in love with the arid lands.
  
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    Jennifer Nichole Wells on Jul 9, 2015 at 7:12 am
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    I really think I would. It sounds breathtaking.
    
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    - 8
      
      Patrick Jennings on Jul 10, 2015 at 9:47 am
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      Only the ocean, a remote Sandy beach with a hard onshore break, or a stormy thrashing at the base of rock cliff’s, moves me more than a desert landscape. Still, deserts photograph better… at least for me. 🙂
      
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On being grateful in a shroud of dust | pix to words on Jul 12, 2015 at 2:34 pm
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[…] This post is my second response to Jennifer Nichole Wells’ wonderful photo prompts, One Word Photo Challenge. This week’s challenge is Sandstorm. The first response, also set on the edge of China’s massive Taklamakan Desert, is Ming Sha Shan […]

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One Word Photo Challenge: Flood | Jennifer Nichole Wells on Jul 14, 2015 at 7:01 am
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[…] https://pixtowords.com/2015/07/08/ming-sha-shan/ […]

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