1 - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

THE CHIEFTAIN
By GRACE BARKER WILSON
Kirtland, New Mexico
The chieftain rests. For ages all unnumbered
In this dim place his quiet bones have lain;
But never think his restless soul has slumbered;
He stalks abroad on desert, mesa, plain.
Though archeologists of late have spied him,
And bared his remnants to the public view,
He haunts the trails of those who once
defied him,
And shouts a voiceless battle cry anew.
The ruins of his home are tourist treasures,
Explored and photographed just for a day.
But riding on the wind to martial measures,
He leads what spirit warriors, who can say?
CONVERSION
By SALLY HARVEY
Monrovia, California
At first I could not see
The beauty in this land—
But sparse, unlovely growth
And cactus-studded sand.
Then I saw the hills
Turned rosy by the dawn,
And a soft purple-blue
When night was coming on.
Golden flowers spread
As far as one could see—
Desert colors of spring
Have made a fan of me!
Photo by Don Ollis
JOSHUA TREE
By SALLY HARVEY
Monrovia, California
So lonely—
A stark figure against the sky.
And twisted,
The black thick limbs awry.
How white
The blossom in the spring,
Indomitable—
Of all the desert, king.
What Price Peace?
By TANYA SOUTH
What price peace, of wrongs compounded?
Greatness is on struggle founded!
Peace is but a phase—no more.
For the pendulum will swing,
And we grovel or we soar,
Or we're mute, or shout or sing,
As we earn and as we learn
All the things for which we yearn.
Ah, attainment is a raiment
Not acquired without full payment.
Be it peace or be it war,
Man can only learn to soar
Through his striving with each grain—
Which is always pain.
The Cholla's Deceit
By DARWIN VAN CAMPEN
Phoenix, Arizona
Old man of the desert?
White from ageing years?
Give you cause no longer
For intruder's lingering fears?
Has your vengeful cactus spirit
Lost the vigor of its prime?
Do you let your home's intruders
Go unpunished for their crime?
Aid you not your brothers
In defense of your own land?
Have you at last deserted
Their staunch defending band?
Ouch! I've found you out
You masquerading fake.
You held your barbs in waiting
Till I caused the ground to shake.
Then with youthful quickness
You hurled them at my feet,
And your beguilement was effective
Because you've caused me to retreat.
TWILIGHT DREAMS
By MARLENE CHAMBERS
Bloomington, Indiana
The desert sunlight haunts my dreams today;
Before it scatter all the dull delights.
Their feeble radiance fades within the ray
Whose brilliance drives their half-light into
night.
How tired and dull, how worn and pale the
dreams
That seemed so fresh and bright an hour
ago!
Like tumbleweed before the wind, their
beams
Are driven afar—banished by desert glow.
But ghost of sun is fickle in its flight;
And though my famished sight bids it remain,
The vision vanishes. The heavy night
Descends. I call the phantom back—in vain,
An alien amid the northern snows.
My dreams will always seek the desert rose.
VAGABONDS
By MARIE H. EUBANK
La Verne, California
Let's go down the winding road,
Fear and care abandon.
Choosing for our day's delight
Lovely paths at random.
Let's seek hilltops few have trod,
Or roam through meadows green.
Pausing in our joyous flight
To praise a power unseen.
Let's test the lure of desert land.
From toil let's find release.
Scuffing our feet through drifted sand
As we bask in quiet and peace.
Let's catch the beams of sunlight
Filtering through the trees.
Or cast a fly in shimmering pools,
Nature's gift to seize.
Let's not shrink from the raindrops
Lowering clouds would send.
Ecstatic vagabonds let's be
To our journey's end.
DESERT MAGAZINE