calmkate

soulful solution

the desert unfolds in wondrous beauty
touching my very soul
Carlos Castaneda and many others
have journeyed here before
this is the solvent for our soul

less distractions
living in the now
flat as far as the eye can see
vivid colour
tiny critters

survival is key
pretence dissolves
earthy reality prevails
no props
or entertainment

just the vast openness
mirroring my soul
to me …
it taps into
my limitless well of love

for all I need is inside
nothing external
can heal me wholly
only that which lies within
so settle down

look around
know that the solution
already abides
let go of all the baggage
know that I am enough

others can care and support me
but only I have the answers
love myself
then inner wealth
with blessed good health

will set me free
just breath out
and be …
knowing myself
sets me free!

dVerse, surrealism, Linda – with special mention to Miriam’s interview on Out and About
with Carlisle Rogers who reminded me of the power of the desert
google image

35 comments

  1. This is so incredibly powerful. Such vivid words and imagery that take me within and make me feel as though I’m already in that desert. Beautiful. Thanks for the mention too.

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  9. Your poem reminds me of Paolo Coelho’s novel about his journey in the dessert, The Pligrimage which serves as his recollection of his experiences as he made his way across Northern Spain on a Pligrimage to Santiago, it was partly a guide to self discovery.

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  10. Wonderful poem, Kate!
    I grew up in the desert and longed for mountains, oceans, farmland, etc.
    I didn’t truly see the beauty, or uniqueness, of the desert until I grew up some, and then, also, when I saw it through other people’s eyes. 🙂
    I always felt akin to water and trees, so to grow up where water was scarce was hard. But when you study the plant and animal life in the desert you can’t help but be inspired, awed, encouraged, etc! 🙂
    HUGS!!!
    PS…somewhere I have a poem I wrote about the Creosote bush that grows in desert climates.

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    • well if you’ve posted it please share a link here Carolyn … good to share the magical mystery.

      But I know what you mean about growing up with things. My neighbour is a migrant and she’s grows things I consider weeds. Guess they are pretty but one kills our cattle and the other I spent my childhood weeding … gives me a very different perspective. She keeps offering me cuttings 😦

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      • It took awhile to find this poem…I haven’t read it in years. Guess it is really more about the smell after a desert rain…but the creosote bush contributes to the smell. 🙂

        petrichor*
        © CS.7.20. 2006
        an
        intoxicating
        exquisite
        desert perfume
        saturates the air
        after the parched ground
        and thirsty plants**
        welcome a
        desert thunderstorm

        breathe in deeply
        hold that refreshing
        scent for as long
        as you can, there
        is no other smell
        in the world
        quite like it

        enjoy it like
        a desert sunset
        for it will
        evaporate
        all too soon

        *comes from the Greek word “petros” meaning “stone/rock”, and “ichor” meaing “from the mythological veins of the gods”.

        **The Creosote Bush, and a few other desert plants, exude an oil that is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. When the rains come, the oil is released from the plants into the air along with another compound, geosmin, producing that distinctive, ethereal, heavenly scent.

        Creosote bushes can live to be thousands of years old and can live through droughts that other plants, animals, and humans cannot endure.

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  11. What a great reminder of my teenage reading habits! I was a huge fan of Castaneda and had forgotten about the surrealism of his books. I’ve never been to a desert; your poem took me there, to the flatness and colour. I love the lines:
    ‘no props
    or entertainment

    just the vast openness
    mirroring my soul’.

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  14. Those last three stanzas move from the quiet and vastness of the desert to the jubilance of discovering the answer with within oneself…the healing of me by me so to speak.

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  15. While in Arizona a few years back for a funeral, we took a few days to ourselves. We hunted down a man-made lake and took a steam boat ride in the mountains – but to get there we had to travel through aged forest of cacti – each arm takes about 50 years to grow and some had over a dozen arms! Really beautiful country. But very different from forested trees.

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  16. That’s what the desert fathers did in Catholic tradition e.g. Carmelites. Whenever they wanted to be alone and seek God they wandered into the desert….as Jesus did for forty days and nights. No distractions. Great post Kate.

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