Fear not O Muse! truly new ways and days receive, surround you, I candidly confess a queer, queer race, of novel fashion, And yet the same old human race, the same within, without, Faces and hearts the same, feelings the same, yearning the same, The same old love, beauty, and use the same.
“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” – Jean Baptiste Massieu
These are the days of the endless summer These are the days, the time is now There is no past, there’s only future There’s only here, there’s only now
Oh, your smiling face, your gracious presence Oh, the fires of spring are kindling bright Oh the radiant heart and the song of glory They’re crying freedom in the night
These are the days by the sparkling river His timely grace and our treasured find This is the love of the one magician Turned the water into wine
These are days of the endless dancing And the long walks onthe summer night These are the days of the true romancing When I’m holding you oh so tight
These are the days by the sparkling river And His timely grace and the treasured find This is the love of the one great magician Turned the water into wine
These are the days now that we must savor And we must enjoy as we can These are the days that will last forever You got to hold them in your heart
These are the days These are the days These are the days These are the days These are the days
Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you,
The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.
Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid, You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky, For none more than you are the present and the past, For none more than you is immortality.
Each man to himself and each woman to herself, is the word of the past and present, and the true word of immortality; No one can acquire for another–not one, Not one can grow for another–not one.
The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him, The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him, The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him, The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him, The love is to the lover, and comes back most to him, The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him–it cannot fail, The oration is to the orator, the acting is to the actor and actress not to the audience, And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own, or the indication of his own.
— from “A Song of the Rolling Earth” by Walt Whitman
This Agave Stalk Has Grown Over Twelve Feet Since Thanksgiving.
The Power of Tequila! — Image by kenne
Agave [Cactus] by Carol Hamilton
You don’t squeeze tequila from a pumped up, rubbery leaf. Nothing is easy in Mexico, and everything takes time, patience, muscle. Hacking and digging and hacking and a deep pit and fire and time and time and time. I lose time, forget it at the other end of the tequila, but left to me, that cactus would still be standing there on the [Sonora] Desert undisturbed.
“If you like tequila, you will love the art, songs, poems, stories, and recipes in AGAVE.”
Since moving to Tucson and becoming a Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist, I know agaves are not cacti, and I live in the Sonoran Desert, not the Sonora Desert. However, since poets like to take poetic license, I will give Carol a pass on this one.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving we left Pala and returned to Tucson. Our normal route has been to head west to I-15, then east on I-8. This time we decided to take an alternate route parallel to I-8 through the mountains to the desert into Imperial Valley. Before reaching El Centro, in the valley and near the Salton Sea, we begin to see dust in the distance.Signage told us that our route was taking us through Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area (SVRA). You could see RVs, with their flag poles up, in all directions. Ocotillo Wells is open for off-highway exploration and recreation, which in another life I would have loved to have experienced in my dirt-bike twenties.
As we headed east early in the morning, (about 8:00 am) the were just a few off-road vehicles out in the desert leaving behind a lot of dust, which would be a multiple of what the day would bring once hundreds of vehicles hit the dirt.
Once we were on I-8 and near Yuma, Arizona, we once again saw off-road vehicles, this time on the Algodones Dunes. The dunes are 45 miles long by 6 miles wide, extending along a northwest-southeast line that correlates to the prevailing northerly and westerly wind directions. Where I-8 crosses the Algodones Dunes, the frontage roads provide an easy access for off-road vehicles.
At least there’s not a lot of dust stirred-up by the many vehicles on the sand.
We stopped at a rest area to take a few photos of kids of all ages.
Images by kenne
DIRT IN MY LIFE
Children play in dirt We stay connected to dirt Always washing hands.
I had a dirt bike When I was in my twenties Fate was on my side.
Now I hike in dirt Staying bonded to nature Not destroying it.
At this annual time of transition between calendar years, it is a time of reflecting and acting. A time of year for celebrating from Thanksgiving through the new year. It is the Holiday Season!
It is a time of year for considering “this and that,” (my grandmother’s words when I would ask, “What are you doing, Grandma?”) reflecting over 2013, it is a time to “ing” out the year.
Large family gatherings such as Thanksgiving, brings together people with different persuasions, ideologies, and beliefs. At our gathering this year, Thanksgiving took on a special meaning for those who believe in the December 21, 2012 doomsday prophecies. This cartoon is for those who believe the world will end December 21st, and especially those who think everything needs to be privatized. These doomsday prophecies (Cults and Mind Control) are good for business!
Large family gatherings such as Thanksgiving, brings together people with different persuasions, ideologies, and beliefs. At our gathering this year, Thanksgiving took on a special meaning for those who believe in the December 21, 2012 doomsday prophecies. This cartoon is for those who believe the world will end December 21st, and especially those who think everything needs to be privatized. These doomsday prophecies (Cults and Mind Control) are good for business!
kenne
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