I'm back online!!!!

And I've seen my first wild alligator and my first wild orchid! My life is good, what's the best thing that has happened to you lately?

From Arizona to Louisiana

Hey y'all,

I finished my internship at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I love, love, loved the Sonoran Desert but life on the border was extremely interesting...interesting as in "may you live in interesting times". I really get a kick out of these internships and since the economy is conspiring to keep me underpaid for the near future I am going with the flow, the flow to Louisiana to learn fire effects monitoring in the bayou!

And wow, is it different here. Thanks to corporate america there are some key anchor points (starbucks, McDonald's, etc.) but there is nothing quite like seeing your first swamp or houses on stilts, or miles and miles of smashed up mobile homes.

My living situation isn't quite as sweet as the little house in Organ Pipe National Monument (I had two excellent roommates) but it is next to the Pearl River and rather relentlessly green. It's a good thing I had the Sonoran desert as a stepping stone to the Bayou, from the Mojave desert to the Louisiana swamplands would have been overwhelming.

Here are a few pictures:

picasaweb.google.com/lrwxyz/Louisiana

of the area where I am living. I'll try to get some more when (if!) it stops raining. I hope you are all well. I miss tribe desperately, living in these tiny bygone areas can feel pretty lonesome after awhile. I hope I'm able to reconnect though it does seem tribe is a little slowwww these days.

Water to the Roots

Water to the Roots

I walked in a land without water
I snapped dry branches between my fingers
Nothing lives without the dream of water
And I have seen this place look like death
Empty cabin dreams buried in refuse
Hopes the wind alone heard and remembered
Creosote pale gray and nearly leafless
Blackbrush bare and the feeling of being barren

Like a country mired in money without heart
Every sweet beauty starved into ugly profit
Driven by a demon dubbed necessity
But manufactured needs can be unmade

Not like this dry desert needing rain
Waiting, a quiet pulse beating like a
muffled drum deep beneath the sandy soil
Waiting, like a lost breath when the heart jumps

But near the end even waiting feels dead
And still the desert waits for its erratic
Lover, its impetuous unpredictable
Partner in this gray green dance of life
And when the rain comes, often in the night
Soft like a lovers hand, or in the heat,
Wild, frenzied, an outpour of passion
Like a desperate need to be loved,
to be loveable, to remember love,
driving floods, overflowing gullies,
digging sand whirlpools where washes cross
irreverently and water, water,
seeps into sand, seeps down to the roots
of all things, heals the ache of dryness, springs
life back into awareness

And then, our desert is a new woman,
a woman wild in love with everything
a woman who can’t keep her hands still for loving
for touching for caressing that green life pulse
trembling everywhere with ecstasy.

People before Profit

I’ve had some bumper stickers printed up: “People before Profit” . They are 1 ½” x 8 ½ “, black background and white lettering. If you would like one please send $1.00 to cover printing and postage to:

From A Wild Place
PO Box 130
Twentynine Palms Ca 92277

Please pass this information along to anyone who might be interested. All profits go towards supporting the writing workshops I teach at domestic violence shelters so feel free to send more than $1.00 if you are so inclined.

;-)

Here’s for a saner future for humanity!

At home in the Mojave

A warm hug and embrace for all of you. (Are there many of us left here?) I don't have internet access in the desert this year and I am finding it a wise decision. The world rarely intrudes on my happy oasis. A recent rainfall has covered my little homestead with wildflowers, a real treasure. I'm becoming very involved in the desert community and enjoying it tremendously. I find myself happy here as I have not been since I lost my home in a forest fire four years ago.

In this sense, I am a true moon child...I need those deep ties to the earth, to place, to community, and the community here is whimsical and eccentric. It seems everyone is an artist, writer or musician. I don't think I've ever found a place I've felt more comfortable in. My particular blend of scientist and artist and just plain wierdo is completely "normal" here. It's even normal to be broke and to consider art more important than financial security.

Even though I'm spending less time on tribe, I hope I can continue to build the friendships I've found here.

Be well.

With BIG love,

Lori