Tag: desert

Poetry by Patrick JenningsDec 22, 20199:50 pm

Expansive, I-395, Willow Ranch, California, USA

Expanse ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #212

In the high desert
Where the land is wide
And the sky wider
I cross the expanse
On a knife’s edge of asphalt
Buffeted by furious headwinds

Inside my little cockpit of calm and warmth
I sing “Wassiye! Wassiye!”
With Habib Koite
A song of mirth and joy and love

Just as is the song within me
As I navigate existence
Across the expanse of being
And all its many storms

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJan 1, 20197:23 pm

From Grim to Glimmer

Finally!
The grey grim relents
On the first day
Of a new year

The last act
Of a once reticent sun
This vibrant glimmer
This display of possibility

Poetry by Patrick JenningsDec 28, 201810:23 am

Blackened Earth, Highway G215, Nearing Liuyuanzhen, Gansu Province, China

Rolling through the Ebony

Rolling through
A land of crushed ebony
Tarry asphalt dividing
The slender white lane markers
And scrubby tufts of amber

I scramble up an ebony mound
To find a landscape of ebony mounds
Growing to distant mountains
All of the same ebony skin

“At least,” I think, out loud
Into the air so dry
It swallows up the words
Right off my tongue
“the falling sun seems less
Like a fire
On a cast-iron skillet.”

Poetry by Patrick JenningsDec 18, 20184:57 pm

Another Roadside Attraction, Route 66, Mojave Desert, California, United States of America

Inexorable Intent

Necessity creates
Necessity destroys

Intentional purpose
Inexorable decay

Dynamic tension
Eternally entwined

Poetry by Patrick JenningsNov 8, 201810:03 pm

An Ancient Beach

I think of a beach
Half a billion years ago
Petrified in a moment of flux

And the creatures
Which skittered there
Having barely left the sea

I think of a wave
And the littlest living things
Awash in the foaming ocean

Not so unlike
The littlest living things
Swishing over my feet in the surf

Landscape by Patrick JenningsOct 21, 20183:37 pm

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.

Poetry by Patrick JenningsOct 20, 20188:37 pm

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

Poetry by Patrick JenningsSep 23, 201811:09 pm

Badlands Erosion, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Limbs ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #154

Limbs
Intertwined
Breath
On my wrist
Breast
In my hand
Eyes
In a dream

Asleep
In my arms
Your back
On my chest
The trust
This implies
The love
In my heart

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJul 3, 20181:32 pm

Footsteps in the Dunes, Ming Sha Shan, Mountains of Singing Sand, Dunhaung, Gansu, China

Going Forward

I carry my past
In a backpack
So I am never far
From the moments
Which defined me

Events
Connections
Love, loss
Attainment, failure
Lessons, places, people
Glories and gaffes and grace

Everything that ever happened
To get me here
Where I’m standing
In this moment now
On the path
To who I’ll be

Poetry by Patrick JenningsJul 2, 20188:48 pm

Authentic

Quiet mind
Breathe

If nothing comes
Find a prompt
(Photographs usually work.)
Start again

Breathe
Quiet mind

Write what comes
Don’t argue with the words

It’s OK to not like what they say
Write them anyway

It’s OK to not have the right words

Write down the wrong words
The right ones can be found later

Wait or pause whenever it feels
Like the words aren’t coming… yet
Or the meaning isn’t right… yet
And the right way isn’t present… yet

Quiet mind
Breathe

Take the time
To let them come
To let them flow

When they flow
Don’t stop

Stop, when it feels OK to stop
Stop, when the words feel true

If the words feel true
They are authentic

Whether or not they seem beautiful
Whether or not they seem important
Whether or not they seem angry
Whether or not they seem loving
Whether or not they seem … whatever

This is the hard part

Whether or not they hurt a little to read
Or hurt a lot

It seems, though
Authentic words are never hurtful
Nor bitter
Nor righteous
There is no deceit in them
Nor guile

The ego is not authentic

Not all words which come
Need to be shared
Even authentic ones
Some words were only ever intended
To speak truly to a readership of one

But, consider sharing them anyway
The word could use a little more
Authenticity