storm clouds at sunset
rain
reflections in gold
Author: Juliana Lightle
Summer Day
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sunrise over canyon wall
shimmering heat of a summer day
sun sinking behind cedars
Book Review by Mary Sharratt: ESTHER by Rebecca Kanner
I am reblogging this because it fits with my next book project: poems from the viewpoint of the ancient mother goddess and others from the viewpoint of women in the Bible.
We have been lost to each other for so long. My name means nothing to you. My memory is dust. This is not your fault or mine. The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed into the keeping of men, who had no way of knowing. That is why I became a footnote, my story a brief detour between the well-known history of my father and the celebrated chronicle of my brother.
-Anita Diamant, The Red Tent
To a large extent, women have been written out of history. Their lives and deeds have become lost to us. To uncover the buried histories of women, we must act as detectives, studying the clues left from ages lost.
At its best, historical fiction can write women back into history and challenge our misconceptions about women in the past. Anita Diamant’s novel, TheRed Tent, became such an…
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Meet the Artist–the Writing Process and Poetry
This evening I am the artist at a local Meet the Artist event in Amarillo, Texas. This event occurs bimonthly and past presenters have included musicians, photographers, and painters. While I sing and take photos, my presentation will include reading poems from my book, “On the Rim of Wonder” and new, unpublished poems and talking about the writing process. While I honestly thought few would be interested in the latter, several people have asked me specifically to discuss this.
Although I consider myself a writer, I do not sit down on schedule and write every day like many writers. Inspiration, thoughts, come to me sporadically. I write creatively exactly like I used to write college papers, magazine articles, etc.; I look like I am doing nothing, but in reality, all these ideas run through my head and finally gel. Then I sit down and write it all at once.
The following is one of the poems from my book which I plan to read this evening:
Aging
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas
Custom says, “Age gracefully.”
Are they crazy, dumb.
Who wants to look
old
wrinkled
grey?
They lie.
All of them.
Who wants a broken mind
confused
unfocused
lost?
Shoot me!
Burn my bones.
Scatter them
in the desert sands
to feed
desert willow where
rattlesnakes lie
searching for shade.
Dealing with Despair by Carol P. Christ
This blog post also notes that cities and small towns use traffic tickets for minor violations to fund their governments. Immediately, I thought of a tiny town on the highway from Amarillo to Dallas that rakes in huge amounts of money this way. Then this morning I just read of another incident where police killed a black man who, instead of having a gun as police claimed, had his hands up in the air–from a surveillance camera nearby. The police officers in question had on body cameras–that footage has not yet been released. I am quite sure we will hear more about that one even if it has not been on the national news yet.
Philando Castile, school cafeteria worker, killed driving while black
In a state of shock after the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I turned to my Facebook feed, looking for community in my grief and hoping to make sense of what had happened. The statement, “He would not have been shot if he had been white,” referring to Philando Castile, appeared several times. The first time I saw it, I responded, “He would not even have been stopped if he had been white.” Think about it if you are white: how many times have you been pulled over by the police?
I can answer that question: in the United States, only once, and that was because I made a second illegal U-turn at the same stop-lighted intersection as a teenager. The policeman issued me two tickets, stating that he had been willing to let the first offence go…
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Ethiopian Journey–From Addis Ababa to Debre Birhan
Addis is the second highest capital in the world. Only La Paz, Bolivia, is higher. To a large extent, altitude determines climate in Ethiopia. Addis and the surrounding area, much of which is high altitude farmland, receives a lot of rain this time of year and looks totally unlike what a lot of people think of when they hear the word Ethiopia–not desert but rather miles and miles of green.
We had not driven far from Addis when we crossed a river, an area of which is considered healing. Many people had come for priests to bless them and to experience the healing power of the water.
I saw only three tractors in ten days of criss crossing farmland. Why so few? One reason is rocks. Many of the fields remain rather full of rocks in spite of many having been removed.
Therefore, they farm the “old fashioned” way; horses or cattle pulling plows with a human behind.
Houses in the villages in the farming areas demonstrate old ways alongside new.
Winnowing the way we did in the USA a century ago.
Much of the farmland is a picturesque patchwork quilt of browns and greens.
Before dropping down to lower country, we drove by Menelik’s Window. The drop off here is steep and far. I did not go near it–I had not yet become used to the endless drop-offs or even realized that I would need to do so. This is one of four places in Ethiopian where you can see gelada baboons. They are extinct elsewhere. Menelik was an Ethiopian emperor. This “window” allows one to look from the high country for miles and miles to the landscape beyond.
The large tufts of grass provide food for the gelada which are grass eating herbivores, the last of the grass eating primates. All others are extinct. This same grass is used by the locals for roofing material so boys stay in these areas all day chasing off the baboons.
To keep themselves busy they weave woolen baskets and hats to sell which they display in the grass.
This ten year old boy happily donned the hat he had made. I bought it for my grandson who was the same age when I took the trip.
Except for the different vegetation, driving down the mountain looked a lot like driving through Colorado.
Down from the mountain the landscape appears quite different and considerably drier. We drove through several smaller towns on our way to Debre Birhan where we stayed the first night.
Driving in Ethiopia requires navigating around animals. Everyone drives their cattle, camels, horses, all livestock down the road whenever possible. The roads are generally very good. Many, built by the Italians, have stood the test of decades.
Along the road we saw many of these “apples”. My friend told us how they played with them as a child. However, the adults all warned the children not to touch their eyes when they did–it will make you blind. They are called Apples of Sodom–so many things in Ethiopia have symbolic meaning.
These fruit could be seen all along the road and even on the road. After driving through this drier area we rose above a huge valley with miles and miles of grass.
A semi-nomadic group brings their immense herds of cattle here in the rainy season to graze. When we drove further on above the valley, I saw the first tractor working a field as big as this grazing land.
Ethiopian Journey–Addis Ababa
We spent a couple of days in Addis staying with my friend’s sister who lives there. Addis traffic is incredible. In a city with millions of people I saw only one traffic light and it was not working. Most intersections are giant traffic circles and getting through them is a rather daunting task. On the way to my friend’s brother’s house one day, we sat stuck for nearly one half hour–we could not get through the circle. Finally, the passenger in the car to the right of us jumped out and stopped the traffic so we and his driver could get through.
Additionally, it rained often, streets and buildings were under construction, and mud and potholes showed up everywhere. This is a nice traffic circle.
A nice day with little traffic.
They were building a new rail line across the city hoping people would use the train instead of driving.
This is a typical residential street in a newer part of the city. A gate with a guard can be found at each end of the street.
In other parts of the city, houses have walls around them and you back your vehicle out into a street like this, then go to the main street.
Walls around houses are not bare. Lush tropical vines and flowers cover many of them.
Many of the fancier, famous hotels, like the Hilton here, contain fountains and gardens. My friend and I could not resist a photo in front of the pool and fountains.
After wandering around the Hilton we drove to see the grounds of another famous hotel where foreign diplomats often stay. The plants in the foreground are papyrus.
These extensive gardens take a while to walk around. Many of the plants and trees are labelled. From here we could see the Addis skyline.
We stayed in Addis a couple of days. Before we left on a ten day road trip, my friend’s sister took us to a traditional restaurant. I expected it to be filled mostly with tourists–was I ever wrong.
In addition to traditional food, this restaurant features traditional dancing. Many locals came to compete, to try to out-dance the professional dancers.
The lady on the left, one of the professional dancers, and the lady on the right having a little competition. The lady on the left is dressed in traditional dress.
In the background locals try to out-dance the professionals.
Ethiopian Journey, Dubai
If you have a long enough layover in Dubai, they put you up in their Emirates hotel and feed you in the cafeteria free. The hotel is nice, the food excellent–quite a nice perk. From the hotel it is easy to walk to several places as well as take a van tour around the city. We did both.
The view from my room. The pool has a swim up bar but it is not open during Ramadan which was occurring two years ago when we were there. Alcohol is available in some restaurants and bars but you must imbibe inside.
One of the first places we visited on the tour was this mosque, designed to look like the famous mosque in Istanbul. The following photos are of typical houses near the mosque.
Then we arrived at the beachfront of the Persian Gulf. The water is warm, like lukewarm soup. In the background two of the most expensive hotels in the world tower above the water.
The street goes along the waterfront with luxury hotels on the left. Many of these areas are fill–manmade peninsulas.
You can visit the sister hotel in the Bahamas.
Because of the fill, the fake peninsulas, it is easy to get a bit disoriented. Plus during the summer there is so much haze, it is rather difficult to determine directions.
The tallest building in the world.
After visiting several smaller shopping areas, we arrived here, the famous Dubai mall. This is the largest aquarium in a mall in the world. Here you see people from everywhere in the world dressed in every way imaginable.
A children’s store across from the aquarium contained this lollipop tree with giant lollipops.
In spite of high heat–it was 108 when we arrived–no wind and high humidity (yes, because on the Gulf, even though it is desert, the humidity is stifling), many people were outside awaiting the fountain show.
One part of the skyline reflected in the lake. The fountain show, synchronized with music, is worth the wait even in the heat.
On to the gold and silver souk.
Gold and silver are sold by weight. You can also buy gold in shops at the airport; however, nothing quite has heavy and exotic as some of this.
We did actually shop in the food shops and bought nuts covered in various spices to take along for snacks.
Ethiopian Journey–The Beginning
Two years ago today, two friends and I flew from here to Dallas to Dubai. The final destination: Ethiopia, where I spent nearly three weeks with them and my friends’s family plus a road trip through the north. Ethiopia was nothing like what one sees in the news, in famine photographs, nothing like the image most people in the USA have of it. My main goal when I returned home was to show people photos and inform them what it really looks like, how incredibly beautiful it is there. This mission continues two years hence. For the next several weeks I plan to relive this journey and share it on my blog here.
It is a short trip from Amarillo to Dallas via air. In order to carry the baggage allowed on Emirate Airlines, we first flew via Southwest to Love Field, then took a taxi to Dallas International. If you plan to fly long distances, I highly recommend Emirates Airlines. Compared with all the others I have experienced even coach class is wonderful: bigger seat room, more than a hundred movies to watch, good food, an area where you can help yourself to fruit and snacks, unlimited wine and beer, and an international group of flight attendants.
From Dallas to Dubai is fifteen hours of flying.
People wonder why they fly over Greenland, Iceland, northern Europe to get to Dubai. Do not look at a flat map. Get a globe and trace the route. It is the shortest way to go. Dubai is not like many think here. No, I did not see endless lines of Lamborghinis and Ferraris. In fact, I do not recall seeing any at all. Tomorrow, photos of Dubai before heading on to Addis.
Horses
horses, running, bucking
storms coming
later, calmly graze together
a lesson
writingontherim 