Tag: badlands

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Crosscurrents, Badlands, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Emergent ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #232

Sometimes the flow of events
Runs across the prevailing currents
Revealing both in high relief

Some will argue for the flow
Some will argue for the current

I remind myself

Step back to appreciate the whole
Evaluate the emergent patterns

Given an opportunity to observe
Beyond the confines of existing paradigms
Seek the possibility of a new way

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Giants, Badlands, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Giant ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #158

There I stood, at the feet of giants, myself measuring no taller than the smallest of their toes, and standing as high in my own shoes as possible. One giant leaned down, only slightly, though the Earth trembled beneath his shifting weight. He peered at me, squinting, as I would to better observe an insect trundling across my boot. A snort. Dismissive. The earth heaved again as he rose. The atmosphere rumbled with his voice.

“I beg your pardon if this offends you,” he began, it seemed to me, in rather gentle tone for a being known to have bellowed up a hurricane, “but you seem mighty small for something which calls itself ‘King of this land and all the land you’ve ever known,’ some small trifle claiming to command us, the Brethren of the Mountains, as his subjects.” Gentle, perhaps, but not without a significant undertone of malice.

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Bentonite, Badlands, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Hide

This flowing earth
Which rain does melt
And sun does bake
To make a hide
A flesh so tough
Naught but steel
Can break its skin

And like the earth
I’m toughening
Impervious
To love’s torment
I keep it out
Pretense: content

But even steel
Can’t cleave my soul
And never could
Through toughest hide
I feel my heart

So soon enough
I’ll find my way
To safety’s arms
Then shed this skin
To let you in