28 Comments
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Heidi Zawelevsky's avatar

Beautiful, Trudi. Your poem really radiates the heat of the desert and taps into deep history.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

It was so hot, Heidi! We saw desert dogs playing! So cute! I think they belonged to the people working there.

Heidi Zawelevsky's avatar

What a great experience!

Zsolt Kohalmi The Late Harvest's avatar

Trudi,

Your poems have a backbone. You operate a mover company, as I feel to have logistically moved me to that Barren land. I feel the sand stuck in my eyes. It doesn't disturb me. It reminds me of Death Valley and Zabriskie Point visited 46 years ago, when my children were teenagers. Now they prepare for retirement...

You brought me back the crazy seventies, so beautifully presented by the film Zabriskie Point. I was young...

Thank you🙏

Zsolt Kohalmi The Late Harvest's avatar

Of course, Antonioni's film was provocative the kind of apocaliptic future and this is why I called it the crazy seventies. We had the first oil crisis, people were shot dead at the petrol station, but I can't replace my youth for a different one.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

We can’t rewrite our history but we can learn to view it differently. I wouldn’t change my past nor would I want to go over it again!

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Zsolt, that is wonderful to hear! I am pleased this poem evoked good messages for you.✨

Rolando Andrade's avatar

Thank you, Trudi. It's curious how such an arid and barren landscape has been a source of so much creativity throughout the centuries. And you've shown once again that you're certainly not in a desert of creativity.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Thank you, Rolando. Your words mean a lot! My creativity has felt barren for a while. I hope it lingers this time! ✨

Jo-Ann Petrarca's avatar

Trudi, a great description. All I can imagine is the wind blowing and getting on your eyes😱… I know, I’m cuckoo. That marketplace looked amazing, so much fun sprinkled with magic✨

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Jo-Ann I was covered in dust. My eyes, too! 😆

Jo-Ann Petrarca's avatar

Oh no, I’m positive that did not tickle

Grace Drigo's avatar

So gorgeous! Both the poem and the photo. 💛 Enjoy your time there, Trudi.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Thank you, Grace. I will! ✨

Tom Merrill's avatar

"Evening star" suggests to me both Venus and the sun were visible. In the photo only the sun is. It is possible for both to be visible at the same time, but somehow I don't think that's what's intended. If it isn't intended, changing star's modifier might help.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Hi Tom, the evening star (Venus) was visible, but not in this picture!✨

Tom Merrill's avatar

Just wanted to be sure. Descriptively, the ditty struck me positively. It could also have a dimension beyond the painterly, depending on a reader's point of view.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

The interpretation is always the reader’s privilege.✨

Tom Merrill's avatar

J’assumerai donc mon privilège et déclarerai la représentation fidèle à tout Tellus dûment honoré. Sauf, bien sûr, pour les spectateurs. Et pourtant me voici, dans un Paradis quelque peu révisé.

Trudi Nicola's avatar

As you wish! Why French?

Tom Merrill's avatar

Ça dépend de l'humeur, du moment, mais peut-être surtout de si j'ai envie de me parler à moi-même un peu plus que d'habitude. Parfois, j'écris pour me divertir. But I can always flip back to normal in a snap. Occasionally, for some unaccountable reason, translators will convert my short bursts of lingua franca as if they were worth getting right. Merely something I've noticed. At any rate, it's like having to resort to oneself for amusement. I feel lucky I can do it even a little. It helps kill time, which I would frankly prefer dead...................But now I'm wondering, why does anybody write poetry? My own answer must be, just following an evolving native knack. Same as a mechanic's inborn fascination with machines, but more speech-focused. Everybody has a knack for something, to a greater or lesser degree. I may've envied the mechanic's most. In that category, I'm not sure how possible it would be to have less capability than I have. I once called a plumber to fix something which he said when he saw it was in the electrical domain. "How do 2 WASPS change a lightbulb?"................."One mixes the martinis while the other calls the plumber." So I introduce myself as the star of the joke (minus the martinis, I require ambers and straight). Well, I seem to have anglicized my word cumuli. So I guess I stayed snapped out of it. Made anglais an alternative conduit anyway.

Carole Roseland's avatar

Where is this, Trudi? Haven’t seen your posts in a while—you know, Substack at its best. That looks too hot for me!

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Hi Carole, it is just outside of Marrakech, in Morocco. It is very hot and very beautiful. We have stayed cool - there is plenty of shade!

Carole Roseland's avatar

Ah, that explains it! Just stay out of the sun and have a wonderful time!

Trudi Nicola's avatar

Thank you! 🙏