Calming the Wilderness

By Annemarie Marek

Calming the Wilderness was inspired by nature of the human kind and of the natural world. When the author's mother faded away into the wilderness of her mind and later died from dementia, the author began to examine the relationship between the challenges of the natural world with those that we encounter as human beings, hence the title.

There will always be times when we face wind and cold, drought and desert in our own lives, much as nature does. The author's hope is that you will also discover amazing vistas from mountaintops and rainbows after the storm. This collection of poems offers fresh insights into the joys and challenges of living in the high desert and discovering the gifts of its wildness and wilderness.

Appropriate for all ages - young and old - Calming the Wilderness provides a glimpse of how ordinary natural circumstances become extraordinary encounters with nature that last a lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543983418

Book preview

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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN: 978-1-54398-340-1

eBook ISBN: 978-1-54398-341-8

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Dive, the Deep Blue

I have always loved a rose

My Life: Three Birds

High Desert Palette

Pollen Chaps

Saguaro Home

Scaled Quail

Sketches

Refractions

Calming the Wilderness

Yellow

Wind

Storm

The clouds are forming overhead

Dawn

Magpies in Mourning

Monsoon

Fragile Frost

Christmas

Ristra

Tears of Blue Sky

Tracks

Verde River Blues

On Being Snake

Natural Determinism

Mountain Mahogany

Honey God

Cholla

Arizona 1523

An Apology to the Curve-Billed Thrasher

A Congress of Crows

The Aria

Song of Sirens

The Fire Ring

If I were blind in the desert

Deserted

Ode to the Aged

Six Steps to Knowing

Acknowledgments

This book of poetry was inspired by nature of the human kind and of the natural world. When my mother faded away into the wilderness of her mind and later died from dementia, I began to examine the relationship between the challenges of the natural world with those that we encounter as human beings, hence the title of this book of poetry: Calming the Wilderness.

There will always be times when we face wind and cold, drought and desert in our own lives, much as nature does. My hope is that you will also discover amazing vistas from mountaintops and rainbows after the storm.

A special thanks to friends and family who not only encouraged me to write these poems but who were welcoming listeners and critics. Without their confidence and counsel, I may never have adventured this far.

Juliana Marek-Hill

John J. Marek II

Penny Truelock

Sharon E. Tucker

Becky Clontz

Jackie Griffith

Laura J. Mulry

Seven poems in this collection appeared in the following publications:

Ristra, Trickster – A Literary Journal, Northern New Mexico College, Spring 2019

Deserted, Trickster – A Literary Journal, Northern New Mexico College, Spring 2019

Fragile Frost, Trickster – A Literary Journal, Northern New Mexico College, Spring 2019

Christmas, Trickster – A Literary Journal, Northern New Mexico College, Spring 2019

Sketches, Trickster – A Literary Journal, Northern New Mexico College, Fall 2017

Pollen Chaps, Trickster – A Literary Journal, Northern New Mexico College, Fall 2017

Calming the Wilderness, Poetry Issue, Santa Fe Reporter, Spring 2016

Dive, the Deep Blue

Lost ship

10

Captain of the journey you promised yourself

Miles ago but lost your way, adrift now

Like a ship off course, beaten back by storms

Tossed into currents that offer no promise of land.

Only the clanking of lines, winds banging masts

Blowing tangles of rope, wood and metal

Like my hands now, well-worn and wrinkled

Lines running amok, blood coursing through veins

And the heart beats against the clock

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

9

While we creak and moan,

Bellies aching from lack of food, water, hope

No destination in sight, only despair and worry

That all you had prepared for, yearned to have

Would be carried away by this angry seascape,

Tossed overboard, slipping into foam

Deep blue, down under

And the heart beats against the clock

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.