Morning on the Desert

In my previous article, Rare Allurement, I posted part of an old poem that was found on an old cabin door.  The author of this timeless poem is unknown but I imagine it was someone who loved his time on the desert.  His words ring true even today.  I'm posting the rest of it for you folks who've asked to read it:

(Found written on the door of an old cabin on the desert)

Morning' on the desert, and the wind is blowin' free

And it's ours just for the breathin, so let's fill up you and me.

No more stuffy cities, where you have to pay to breathe,

Where the helpless human creatures move and throng and strive and seethe

Morning on the desert, and the air is like  wine

And it seems like all creation has been made for me and mine

No house to stop my vision, save a neighbor's miles away

And the little 'dobe shanty that belongs to me and May.

Lonesome?  Not a minute!  Why I've got these mountains here,

That was put here just to please me, with their blush and frown and cheer.

They're waiting when the summer sun gets too sizzlin' hot,

An' we jest go campin' in 'em with a pan and coffee pot.

Mornin' on the desert -- I can smell the sagebrush smoke,

I hate to see it burnin' but the land must sure be broke.

Ain't it jest a pity that wherever man may live,

He tears up much that's beautiful that the good God has to give?

Sagebrush ain't so pretty...Well, all eyes don't see the same,

Have you ever saw the moonlight turn it to a silvery flame?

An' that greasewood thicket yonder--Well, it smells jest awful sweet

When the night wind has been shakin' it --for its smell is hard to beat.

Lonesome?  Well, I guess not! I've been lonesome in a town

But I sure do love the desert with its stretches wide and brown.

All day through the sagebrush here the wind is blowin' free,

An it's our jest for the breathin', so let's fill up, you and me.

These words may rekindle fleeting moments you've experienced while camping out or travelling through the great expanses of desert in the United States.  Since I was born near water on the Venezuelean coast, grew up on water in southwest Louisiana and now live a mile from the Pacific Ocean, it's a wonder that the desert appeals to me as it does.  However, remember it's a dried up old sea and that energy remains.  It flows.  Salud.