Rain in the Desert (a poem by John Gould Fletcher)

south by southwest (stacy wills, 2012)

Rain in the Desert

The huge red-buttressed mesa over yonder

Is merely a far-off temple where the sleepy sun is burning

Its altar fires of pinyon and toyon for the day.

The old priests sleep, white shrouded;

Their pottery whistles lie beside them, the prayer-sticks closely feathered.

On every mummied  face there glows a smile.

The sun is rolling slowly

Beneath the sluggish folds of the sky-serpents,

Coiling, uncoiling, blue black, sparked with fires.

The old dead priests

Feel in the thin dried earth that is heaped about them,

Above the smell of scorching, oozing pinyon,

The acrid smell of rain.

And now the showers

Surround the mesa like a troop of silver dancers:

Shaking their rattles, stamping, chanting, roaring,

Whirling, extinguishing the last red wisp of light.

-John Gould Fletcher (1886-1950)

let the beauty we love...

Multiples (Stacy Wills, 2012)

let the beauty we love

 be what we do.  there

 are hundreds of ways to

 kneel and kiss the ground.

-rumi (1207 - 1273)

you glow, we take fire

You Glow, We Take Fire (Stacy Wills, 2012)

you talk, we act.

you learn, we seize.

you inspect, we choose.

you chew, we swallow.

you bargain, we buy.

you glow, we take fire.

you assume, we know.

you ask, we take.

you search, we find.

you love, we languish.

you languish, we die.

you sow, we reap.

you work, we rest.

you grow thin, we grow fat.

you ring, we sing.

you sing, we dance.

you blossom, we bear fruit.

you taste, we savor.

-composed by a young beguine,* name unknown,

in response to criticism from a master of theology.

*the beguines were a christian lay religious community most active during the 13th and 14th centuries, comprised of women who dedicated their lives to jesus.  semi-monastic in nature, they took no formal vows, but lived out their lives in prayer, personal spiritual development, caring for the poor and other acts of charity.