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Wednesday 22 February 2012

Egypt, Everything Moves

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/WhiteD1.jpg

The Saharan White Desert, near Farafra, western Egypt:
photo by Omar Kamel, 24 September 2006




Egypt, everything moves across paper stars in abstract night skies,
wadis, arroyos, wild old playas of moons, dust clouds, abrupt mesas
over which hang in a great arc an ivory crescent sky goddess
who spans with her body the whole inverted bowl of intensely

dark nocturnal desert inking; between mirage
and mirage, reflections; rifts, deceptive distances, universes
growing less and less legible with thought; thought also
then growing more and more faint, with the wandering thinking.





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Mirage_%286%29.JPG/1024px-Mirage_%286%29.JPG

Libyan desert (6). Mirage in Libyan desert between Aswan and Abu Simbel, Egypt: photo by Rémih, 11 June 2007

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Mirage_%289%29.JPG/1024px-Mirage_%289%29.JPG

Libyan desert (9). Mirage in Libyan desert between Aswan and Abu Simbel, Egypt: photo by Rémih, 11 June 2007

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/D%C3%A9sert_Lybique_%285%29.JPG/1024px-D%C3%A9sert_Lybique_%285%29.JPG


Libyan desert (5). Libyan desert near Abu Simbel, Egypt: photo by Rémih, 11 June 2007

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

words have grown beautifully in the desert!!

TC said...

And even better, now they have found a fellow nomad with whom to speak.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

". . . everything moves across paper . . ." including that mirage in the Libyan desert -- beautiful glimpses (poem/photos)

2.22

light coming into sky above black plane
of ridge, towhee standing on fence post
in foreground, wave sounding in channel

horizon one after the other,
object in relation to

itself, position of assumed
hand, can be found in

grey white fog against invisible ridge,
shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit

aditya said...

Tom,

Three weeks ago I went travelling to Jaisalmer and some portions of Thar Desert. On my way back, while crossing Jodhpur, I remembered yr beautiful poem In the blue city, suddenly.

And now this exquisite piece! Talking of nomads, count me in.

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

I haven’t been there but after reading your poem, I take vicarious pleasure in believing I have.

ACravan said...

Everybody: You've expressed yourselves so beautifully.

Tom: Entering the desert writer (and painter) tradition is a brave and generous thing to do. Thank you.

Aditya's memory excites my own, which is great. There are a couple of things over the last couple of days I'd prefer to forget and replace with these words and thoughts.

Curtis

TC said...

Your Caravan has definitely docked at the right Oasis, people.

Order up now, and be first in line to receive your own personal authenticated Tom Clark Patriotic Series Garden Nomad!

Now's the time to get that crotchety old sprinkler system in working order before the torrid heats of the equinox set in!!

Let no Garden Nomad go unwatered!!!

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

One Tom Clark, two, three, a dozen, a score, all with gnomic smiles, so to speak. A true mirage ...

The poem is wonderful. The finely tuned repetitions, the assonance, I'm positively dizzy from it, and the glorious

"the wandering thinking."

Oh, my, I'm still dizzy, perfectly captured.

And so I'll use that excuse for a little desert humor, since you left the tent flap open ...

PS Normally, my mirages are black and white.

TC said...

Don,

That's my standard form of thinking these days (the wandering kind), it must be confessed.

Great link -- finest supporting performance by a dog since the brilliant canine stole the show in The Artist (another movie that looks back to the period of Beau Geste).