The California desert

One long weekend I visited friends who were renting a house in the middle of the desert near Joshua Tree, California. I flew into Palm Springs so I didn’t arrive at the house into well after dark. It wouldn’t be until the next morning that I got to see the full view of how vast the landscape around their home was. It was stunning and disappeared into the horizon and up the mountains. That first morning (and the following mornings) I silently made my own coffee and took in the sunrise from the yard. Along with their dog who was only too happy to join. This is what I wrote that week.

Desert cold, inside my bones

My tired eyes staring into the vast scape

It’s utter silence

I suddenly realize it’s the first time I’ve ever heard silence

I’m looking for deep thoughts shouting with meaning

Mountain peaks prove I’m connected to something, somehow

But all I can do is drift to promises of red wine being opened 

Red wine to hold me over 

Against an endless sea of Joshua Trees

Day three in the desert has brought more calm 

It accompanies the silence now 

I hand poured my coffee in a camping mug 

And took the dog with me out to the sunrise

Three days of looking out at miles of sameness. The sand, the cactus, the rock, the mountain, repeat, repeat, repeat

A howl from the dog but also the coyotes

It’s a little bit of what I was looking for

Which is more than I could have hoped for 

I close my book and rest my pen

There it is, I hear the silence again

Location: Joshua Tree, California