A wildfire. An exchange:
Out of the ashes, life.
Rime Ice gives way
to flame azaleas in spring.
At the Craggy Gardens Pinnacle,
a panorama of mountain ash.
Red berries like holly, but more orange.
Mountain ash
in winter gives way
to the Rime Ice. You see?
And as the small blue-grey Junco pokes
around for flies, the thaw gives way
to mountain laurel.
A giving and a taking.
And to be silent on a mountaintop,
is to be fog, is to be fine.
When the sun surfaces— an offering
of varied blue peaks,
the ridges, a watercolor print,
a sign, a symbol:
to be still,
with and without.
Shirin Abedinirad, Evocation, 2013. Land art, Central Desert, Iran. Using mirrored circles partially buried in golden sand, the work responds to the desert’s absence of water by conjuring what the artist calls “the ultimate mirage in the desert.” Reflecting the sky across the dunes as if it were blue pools of water, the installation transforms lack into illusion, wonder, and a meditation on the fragile relationship between perception, desire, and nature. Artwork courtesy of featured artist Shirin Abedinirad.
