Desert Quiz - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

SUNRISE
By ANONA MCCONAGHY
Downey, California
I saw a desert sun arise
Above a barren land,
The glory of the flaming skies
Was like a silver band
Which squeezed my heart—
a tightening
That made my breath come fast;
So brief a time, a perfect thing—
But mine while life shall last.
THE ANSWER
By SARAH PHILLIPS SALINGER
Santa Barbara, California
i'm not sure that this is the answer
But it does, in a way, satisfy
When I think of the size of a desert
And question the wherefore and why?
As I watched a breath-taking sunset
My question found ample reply —
I saw that the size of the desert must be
Plenty-big, to make room for the sky.
• • •
CLASSWORK
By DARRELL A. TOTTEN
Las Vegas, Nevada
The desert is a teacher who portrays
Odd vignettes of life in subtle ways.
Just walk a desert trail, alone, and know
Why Man has ever sought to learn—and
grow.
As tomb-like silence casts its formless spell
One finds, within his thoughts, heaven and
hell.
Far from the city's raucous, man-made din
The seeker finds true virtue and true sin.
Mind? — Is it more than just the human
brain,
Counting much less of pleasure than of pain?
Ask the desert. The teacher can explain!
24
In The Desett
By G. R. MARSDEN
Long Beach, California
When the sagebrush sweeps the cobwebs
From a man's neglected soul,
He can place the flaming sunset
On a candle cactus pole;
He can match the sky-high stature
Of a two-toned mountain king;
He can touch an early planet
In the necklace night will bring.
He can glimpse a sea of crystal
As he stands on golden ground;
He can hear the silence shouting
That a restless son is found!
THISTLE SAGE
(Salvia Carduacea)
By MARGARET SHELTON
Vista, California
Remember the bare bleak rocks and shale
The home of the lizard and thorn?
Remember the blow of wind off the snow
And its wail of a soul forlorn?
Well, this is the stage for the thistle sage
Where it stands in its fierce grey spines.
Remember the sky of lupine blue
The clouds and the sun and the sand?
Remember the days when the poppies blaze
Like a sunset spread on the land?
Well, this is the place where the thistles
grace
Their full share in the pageant of spring.
(Purple ruffled petals like a can-can skirt
Flaunting urgent fragrance like a fresh young
flirt-
All around the flounces are stay-away signs
Made of wicked petioles and grey-green
spines.)
DESERT WONDERS
By LAURA A. LAVIGNE
Phoenix, Arizona
Dust-devils swirling o'er the land;
Strange entities born of the wind.
Arrayed in garb of soil and sand,
Bedecked with shredded leaves and straw.
Pole-cacti thumbing "that-a-way";
Spike-armor standing straight and tall.
Mute sentries of an ancient day
Still guarding Nature's last frontier.
Cloud-wisps that travel to the north
For rendezvous on mountain top.
And wrapt in darkness sally forth—
A mighty coverlet of rain.
To me who by the desert live,
The wonder of these things is lost.
Til alien eyes in reverence give
Full measure to their mystery.
FAITH
By TANYA SOUTH
Faith is the open door to Heaven.
And in your life it is the leaven
That recreates again your hope,
And brings a more enlightened scope.
Have Faith, dear heart. That much
God asks.
With Faith to guide, there are no
tasks
Too hard, no struggle over long.
Nor any wrong
Too difficult to override—
For Faith will guide.
DESERT MAGAZINE