Dream Cliffs Arizona

Best Humongous-Cliffs on the border crossing between Arizona and New Mexico. They have old caves and markings which go far back in time...no telling what is buried here...served with no garnish, only texture, in black and white.

 

The Desert Has a Voice (James Watkins)

 

The desert has a voice that calls

In dry, dirt dreams-

Warm, wind-washed wonders

In wingless, soulless flight.

 

Cold, moonlit masquerades

Through long level years,

Crying out with countless cares on deafened ears-

Drowned in measured, motor-muffled madness,

And child-chattered, purposeless flight.

 

Quietly, calmly calling-

Darkened, deepening desert-

Star-filled with stumbling stalkers

And wounded warriors in fevered nights.

 

Dreams-peaceful, persistent, dreams-

As wheeled sky turns

Eternal turning, evening eyes-

And thoughts of morning colored light.

 

Millennial seas-

Doomed and dusty years-

Row upon heaping row of years-

Tears-

Caked, covered

And desolate.

 

The desert has a voice-

That calls and halts

And peers with perfect perspective-

Stopping us in our way.

 

“I have seen blood-stained battles!

I have seen despot desires!

I have seen prophets come and go,

And ages pass with shallow…glancing blows!

I have seen civilizations crumble…

Tumbling, heavy-handed

Into pagan pasts!”

 

The desert has a voice-

And every grain of sand has a name-

Every wind-blown grain of sand.

And someone-somewhere-knows the names.

 

They have perfect place and purpose-

Rocks cry out! Rocks….sing!

Some soaring angelic scribe somewhere

Records the history of rocks, and sands, and deserts.

 

Drab, dull, drifting desert distances and plans.

Ragged, jagged, craggy-edged

Mountain spine explosions and

Dry, desert sand.

 

The desert has voice and future-

With lifted hill-high green valley-

And clear bright stream winding

To cool, crystalline sea.

 

They wait….silently…

Almost… forever waiting-

But I know the secret of deserts-

And –

Dreams.

 

James Watkins-April 2006

 

 

 

Done