For Ellen: a poem by Terry Tempest Williams

Desert Dweller
Walking with the Wind --
Wild hair — Wise eyes
A piece of turquoise in hand
carrying peace and protection
Walking with the Wind — We are walking with the wind.
Your voice is eternal --
You leave us with Bighorn tracks to follow
on the page — in the world
shaped like love — always with love.

Shards of wisdom
Words like water
washing over the exposed red bones of the desert
"I sometimes don't know where my body stops and ends"
you write, "so fierce is my love of home."
Walking with the Wind --
We are walking with the wind --
You are everywhere we walk --
You are everything we see --

Time and space
Color and light
Your transcendent addiction to light --
How do we feel this emptiness
before us — inside us
now?

Terry Tempest Williams
7 November 04