SageGreenJournal.org
voices out of the West, mostly poetry, personal to planetary
Lito Tejada-Flores
Crestone, Colorado &
Lago Chelenko, Chilean Patagonia
Publisher, poet, designer & all-around mountain guy. Electronic versions of several books that Lito has created in collaboration with his wife, landscape phtographer, Linde Waidhofer, can be downloaded from www.WesternEyePress.com
The Once and Only West
1
The once and only West stretches its sunburned arms
clear out to the horizon & beyond, & back again,
stretches its memories out into myths
that eventually turn back into memories,
stretches its winterwhite cloud blankets, snow sheets
tight across thousandmilewide beds of rock,
redrock, rimrock, hardrock, bedrock,
stretches its green and gaudy grasslands out
past fences & more fences & memories of fences
where the only line riders left are ghosts of line riders lost.
2
This dappled sky
pinto-pony clouds
this leopard spotted land
sagebrush dotted bands
of low red hills
this polychrome West
waking from a sunbaked
sleep of centuries,
pretty soon
falling back into a sleep
of centuries....
Feb 1, 2014
3
This land’s as big &
bad as any I ever thumbed across,
each saguaro’s a thorny cross
bare cactus bones nailed up
on the bare bones of the land.
This land’s as bad &
dry as any I've ever seen
& getting drier, ain't it?
all the time, and what's time
out here? who's counting?
Who cares?
L I K E W I N D , L I K E W A T E R
Like wind
like water
April 1, 2014
To be in nature like wind
whipped over ridges
spun through narrow passes
orographic caresses
of changing weather
migrating birds blown
hundred miles off course
reading landforms
landlanguage
in the braile of storm
Like wind
like water
To work in nature like water
subtracting sand
adding sand
subracting land
adding land
scouring scrubbing
snow rain ice
freezing thawing
mudslide landslip
translating landmass
into landscape
Like wind
like water
We are not strong enough
we are not long enough
patient enough
powerful enough
to build a real landscape
why try?
let the wind work
watch the wind work
dream of water
working the land
in different time
What is the wind’s vision
if wind has vision?
what is our vision
of the wind’s vision?
what does the flash flood see
if flash floods see?
we are not wind
we are not water
we cannot bend trees
carve canyons
we only imagine
the carving of canyons
shaping of spires
sandgrain by sandgrain
wind & water
wearing the planet
down into poetry
turning land into landscape
Our minds wander
through four
unstable dimensions
like wind
like water
2 poemas de la Patagonia
with translations
Photos of Lago Chelenko, a.k.a. Lago General Carrera, in the Aysén Región of Chilean Patagonia, by Linde Waidhofer
Arrebol Sureño
Este cielo colorado, una combustión lenta
Tras el horizonte, las últimas brasas del día
Calentando las primeras estrellas, aunque
Todavía no se atrevan a mostrarse—a las once!
Luz de medianoche, luz sureña, medio oscura.
Tardes que no se terminan, que atesoran su luz.
¿Qué hacer con estas horas adicionales? Acaso
No sirven de nada—un regalo ni pedido ni merecido.
Queremos compartir esos colores, esos rojos,
Sangre de un cielo sangriento, horas no sumadas
Al total de esta vida, horas enteramente libres.
No sabemos en que dirección mirar, cada rincón
Del cielo se llena de reflejos, no solo al poniente—
Aquí estamos, inmóviles, rodeados de rojos, de belleza . . .
Red Evening Sky of the South
This ruddy sky, a slow-burning stove
Behind the horizon, the day’s last coals
Warming the first stars, although they still
Don’t dare show themselves—at 11 o’clock!
Midnight light, southern light, half-dark.
Evenings that never finish, that hoard their light.
How to spend these extra hours? Maybe
They don’t matter. A gift unearned, unasked for.
We want to share these colors, these reds,
Blood of a bloody sky, hours that aren’t added
To a lifetime’s total, hours completely free.
We don’t know which way to look, each corner
Of the sky is filled with reflections, not just the West—
Here we are, motionless, surrounded by reds, by beauty. . .
Cielos Patagónicos
Cielos patagónicos.
Cielos inquietos,
Lucha sin tregua
Entre nubes y sol.
Vientos voraces
Devoran esas nubes
Que se disuelven
En lagrimas de lluvia.
Rangos de olas blancas
Escriben sus mensajes
Sobre el lienzo del lago.
Hasta que, por fin,
los arco iris anuncian
Un pacto de paz.
Patagonian Skies
Patagonian skies,
Unsettled skies,
Unending struggle
Of cloud & sun.
Hungry winds
Devour these clouds
As they dissolve
In tears of rain.
Ranks of white waves
Write their messages
On the lake’s canvas.
Until rainbows
At last announce
A peace treaty.