Poems

I wrote these when I was still in Jordan, and just now found them on a disk...

Found

You are reminiscent of the
Desert of my dreams.
An unattainable desire,
A need that will not be filled,
The only place resembling home,
An emotion I have yet to claim...
Or lay a finger on.

If love exists it is in your gaze.
As elusive as that which
Stirs my heart to passion.

Wadi Rum

The Canadian Geese have arrived, with them memories of the desert have also taken flight.

I had awoken at 5.30 in the morning to catch the miracle of the desert sunrise. It was surprisingly cold, my breathe visible upon my pale hands - I suppose I'd never believed a place so hot and dry could get so ghastly cold.

Peering out of the beitshar across the flat plane of sand to the crest of the wadi we were encamped within, I began to trek to where the land seemingly disappeared from the eye, but not the mind. I wondered at the piles of sand at the base of this rocky outcropping where I found myself in the early morning twilight. Gently stepping onto the top of one my leg was immediately engulfed to the knee, surprisingly reminiscent of the snow drifts of my winter home.

Finally finding a place where I felt comfortable I settled in for the sunrise that had always inhabited my dreams.

In front of me tiny feet marched across the ripples and waves of sand. I could only guess at who they might belong - Rodent? Scorpion? Better not to think of what might reappear to take the journey back to whence it had come.

Gradually, nudging its way above the distant peaks, the sun began its daily pilgrimage above one jabal and then another.

Startled; looking up for a plane, tank, or unknown monster. A sound like a million running, pounding feet, yet closer to the sound of a jet taking off. Sounds like this make the simple word sound seem too small and unable, or maybe unwilling, to capture the full measure of what was heard.

Across the horizon a flock of birds whose size was incomprehensible appeared and disappeared as quickly.

Desert silence returns; was that the true sound of a bird? Where had it previously hid before that instant? Could it be that they only shared their true essence in the absence of all others...

Missing

Unrecognizable to those that
Surround me.
Living in distant lands
And memories.
The sandy wind blowing through
My hair,
Tangled and uncontrollable-
Resembling the web of
My life.

Blown back into
My present reality,
Walking sidewalks that fade to
Desert horizons inside
My mind.
Neither belonging
Here
Nor there;
The world I was born into
And that of
My own choosing.