Journal Entry Day #2

[ayngelcat]

Well I was going to post some pictures of my garden today. But LJ wouldn't let me do it. Mean LJ.

So also as part of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm doing this. Which I'm quite nervous about, but I've wanted to do something like it for a while.

And below is my first entry - a 'list poem' about the desert, as I remember it. Which actually was ood to do, because it made me realize the time out there a few years ago was really rather special.

Also good because I hadn't written a poem for about 20 years!

A better day today, though my back's still sore. I got the tf_prime giftfic finished and sent off (finally) and am hoping its OK.

Here's poem:
Desert

Ground like parchment,
Sand, stones, dust plains.
Track stretches ahead. A bare gouge through the wilderness.
In the distance, the hint of hills. Before – just track and desert.

Shades of rust and brown and golden.
Hints of green and grey. Low scrub. Stunted trees. Strange fruits.
Bushes. Scant grass. Ground covers clinging
Flowers when the rains come. Pretty. Transforming. But not today.
Scattered rocks. Termite mounds.
Little cities – insect communities.

Sun-baked track. Tyres strum on corrugations.
Sky so blue against the red-brown. So perfectly blue.
No clouds. Sun burns down. Dazzling orb, high in the sky.
Car bonnet a dirty white. Engine drones.
Stop car. Time for a break.

Creaking car door. Noisy in the silence.
So still outside.
So hot outside. Compared to air conditioned cab.
No other humans. No vehicles in sight.
So big, the desert. So small, me.
Intimidating.
Strangely peaceful. Beautiful.

Eagles wheel in the dryness. Their cries echo bleakly in the vastness.
They go. Silence. So very quiet.

Walk a small way. Ground’s hot. Glad of shoes.
More life around my feet.
Big ants. Glad of the shoes.
Other insects.
Lizard scuttles under a rock.
Dry skin lies discarded. Snake?
Bushes rustle. Hint of a bird.
Shy creatures watch unseen.

Gentle hot breeze against my face.
Eddies of dust on the track.
Faint scent of smoke.
Other strange smells.
Ancient land. Here long before me. Here long after.
Just me. In this alien landscape.
I’m lucky.
I’ll remember this.

Long trip ahead.
Time to get going.
I turn on the engine, and drive towards the distant hills.

Comments

[acidgreenflames.livejournal.com]

wonderful poem <3

[ayngelcat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I haven't written any poetry in so long and am doing this on Dreamwidth in the hope of doing more of this kind of thing. So I'm glad it was an OK start!

It seems weird writing stuff with no transformers appearing in there LOL

[thousanth.livejournal.com]

I particularly like the last line of this one, very powerful.

[ayngelcat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I hope I captured some of it. I spent a lot of time out there between about 2004 and 2009 and should probably have more to say about it :)

[playswithworms.livejournal.com]

Very much enjoyed your poem ^_^ I haven't been to a desert in a long time, makes me want to go on a trip now and spend some time in the wide, quiet, ancient dry places...

[ayngelcat.livejournal.com]

Thanks <333 And awesome! Although I'd had enough of 'remoteness' when I came back to Perth, my time in places like that really was very special. 'Ancientness' and 'timelessness' would have to be some of the key operative words.

The desert in some parts of the USA looks so similar to Australian desert landscapes, I'd love to see it some day to compare notes :D

[femme4jack.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the desert. Your poem really makes me miss it.

I especially loved these lines:
Ancient land. Here long before me. Here long after.
Just me. In this alien landscape.
I’m lucky.
I’ll remember this