By Section - By Author - By Subject
Introduction - Desert Oracle - Desert-ED

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The West will bring you words and art inspired by the great North American Deserts, the Mojave, Chihuahua, Sonora and Great Basin

"The Fallen Man" by Tony Hillerman
"The Sunset had flared out behind Beautiful Mountain when Chee's Patrol car bounced over Lucy Sam's cattle guard and gained the pavement. In the darkening twilight his headlights did little good and Chee almost missed the unmarked turnoff. That put him on the dirt track that led southward toward Rol Hai Rock, Table Mesa, and the infinity of empty country between these massive old buttes and the Chuska range. "

"Precious Balance" by John Nichols
"It happens, then. Quite suddenly one morning I jump up, tired of nihilistic visions, rarin' to change. And without further procrastination I dress warmly, gather up my camera equipment, jump into my truck, and head westward from this green Taos valley in which I live, aiming for the deserted mesa land lying just beyond the Rio Grande Gorge, a treeless almost uninhabited territory that seems to hover with the neutral rhythm of millenniums, as constant as the sky above ... and just itching to save my soul. "

"In Cahoots With Coyote" by Terry Tempest Williams
"Once, after descending into a side canyon to look closely at the striations in the rock that resembled the multicolored petticoats of Spanish dancers, Georgia could contain herself no longer. She howled. Her companions, worried sick that she might have fallen, called to her to inquire about her safety. She was fine. Her response, 'I can't help it -- it's all so beautiful'"

"Desert Years" by Jewel Babbs as told to Pat Little Dog
"Sometimes I would just stand outside my cabin and look across all those hills, over to the faraway blue mountains of Mexico and across the great valley of greasewood all the same color of green stretching out for miles. And I would wonder about my life being tied up in this desert. And I would think about death, that is always just a breath away."

"Desert Dwellings, Desert Claims" by Linda Brookover
"The Taos Pueblo, an 800 year old apartment style dwelling, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the world. In parts of the pueblo, people live in much the same way as they have for centuries, without running water or electricity. One of the most unique places in America, the Taos pueblo has a history rich in revolt and victory and an ancient culture that has survived into the present."

"On The Mesa" by John Nichols
"Their existence here, along with that of the clams, the fairy shrimp, and the tadpoles, intrigues me. Even a translucent mosquito larva attached to the water skin seems reason enough to marvel. Seldom do we take our hats off to the small wonders which clutter all natural experience. Certainly the electric company's environmental impact statement makes no mention of these hardy little souls. "

"The Time is Right" by Philip M. Klasky
"Ward Valley is a wide tilting valley in the southeast corner of California's east Mojave Desert. The proposed r adioactive waste dumpsite is surrounded by eight wilderness areas and in the midst of critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). Nearby are the pristine golden canyons and cave paintings of the Old Woman Mountains. To the east, the foothills of the Stepladder Mountains are covered in a forest of cholla cactus.

The Sands takes us to the Arab world and to the location of the most talked about desert, The Sahara"

"The Crossing of the Empty Quarter" by Wilfred Thesiger
"In the desert I had found a freedom unattainable in civilization; a life unhampered by possessions, since everything that was not a necessity was an encumbrance. I had found, too, a comradeship inherent in the circumstances, and the belief that tranquillity was to be found there. I had learnt the satisfaction which comes from hardship and the pleasure which springs from abstinence: the contentment of a full belly; the richness of meat; the taste of clean water; the ecstasy of surrender when the craving for sleep becomes a torment; the warmth of a fire in the chill of dawn."

"The Original Arab, The Bedouin" by Philip K. Hitti
"In the Fertile Crescent empires have come and gone, but in the barren wastes the Bedouin has remained forever the same. The Bedouin, the camel and the palm rule supreme over the desert. And together with the sand they constitute the four great actors in its drama. "

"Muhammad, The Prophet of Allah" by Philip K. Hitti
"The message of the Arabian Muhammad was a parallel of the message of the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament. God is one. He is all-powerful. He is the creator of the universe. There is a judgment day. Splendid rewards in Paradise await those who carry out God's commands, and terrible punishment in hell for those who disregard them. Such was the gist of his early message."

"The Fearful Void" by Geoffrey Moorhouse
"It was because I was afraid that I had decided to attempt a crossing of the great Sahara desert, from west to east, by myself and by camel. No one had ever made such a journey before, though many men have traversed the desert from north to south... There was only an adventurous challenge in trying to cross the biggest desert on earth between its most distant boundaries. "

"The Physics of Blowing Sand" by William Langewiesche
"They said the sands are fickle. Dunes may drift for decades in one direction, or not drift at all, then suddenly turn and consume you. Consumption by the sand is like other forms of terminal illness: it starts so gently that at first you don't worry. One day the grains begin to accumulate against your walls. You've seen the grains before, and naturally assume that a change in the wind will carry them away. But this time the wind does not change, and the illness persists. "

"Through Western Eyes" by Peter Mansfield
"The truth is that the struggle between Christendom and the World of Islam has never really ended, although it is being fought on different battlefields and with new weapons."

When we named The Remote we thought of the lesser known deserts which today remain as they have for centuries on end. The Taklimakan in Northern China, the Kalahari in Africa, the western lands of Australia.

"Australian Deserts and Their Songlines"
"In the beginning the Earth was an infinite and murky plain, separated from the sky and from the grey salt sea and smothered in a shadowy twilight. There were neither Sun nor Moon nor Stars. Yet, far away, lived the Sky-Dwellers: youthfully indifferent beings, human in form but with the feet of emus, their golden hair glittering like spiders' webs in the sunset, ageless and unageing, having existed for ever in their green, well-watered paradise beyond the Western Clouds."

"Kalahari: The Desert" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
"I once walked right into an empty werf, as their tiny villages are called, and didn't see the little scherms, or huts, hidden in the grass until I noticed a small skin bag dangling in a shadow, which was a doorway. Then I saw the frame of the scherm around it, then the other scherms as well. The werf was abandoned, all the people had slipped away..."

"Kalahari: The Birth" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
"When the fluid from a mother's womb falls upon the ground the child's now is determined, and it is partly for this reason that birth is such a mighty thing. "