{"id":3101,"date":"2017-06-27T22:56:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T05:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/?p=3101"},"modified":"2021-07-15T16:05:12","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T23:05:12","slug":"giraffes-at-san-gorgonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/giraffes-at-san-gorgonio\/","title":{"rendered":"Giraffes at San Gorgonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

The moon is warm tonight, not breeze
\n<\/span>enough to stir the vanes of the wind mills
\n<\/span>grouped in groves of their own out beyond
\n<\/span>the manicured lawns and stands of palms
\n<\/span>which ring this landscaped spa oasis.<\/span><\/p>\n

I take them first as sunflowers basking
\nin a pewter glow, swinging toward
\nnot light but the slightest waft, their roots
\nseeking the moisture said to seep along
\nthe fault deep under this parched basin.<\/p>\n

Then before me there prances among
\nthe baobabs on the dessicated bed
\nof some Lake Chad\u00a0a herd of giraffes,
\ntheir graceful gait stirring flocks up into
\nfluttering flight,\u00a0the piebald quilts of their<\/p>\n

dappled hides furling like ships\u2019 sails,
\nspangles on water where there is none.
\nAs they lope, they dream of other giraffes
\ninscrutable dreams I can never know
\neven as vaguely as I know my own.<\/p>\n

Today you looked especially sad, pale
\narms clasped to your calves.\u00a0Hush<\/i>, I said.
\nNo tears here! Stop believing in the rain!
\n<\/i>Imagine instead flowers as giraffes, baobabs
\nas tumbleweeds perched atop thick stalks.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Inspired by a Nicolai Gumilev poem (<\/em>\u0416\u0438\u0440\u0430\u0444<\/a>),\u00a0insofar as it echoes some of its lines and also embraces the swerve of focus at the end to the sad lover, who believes in rain in the midst of a desert. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

My version is set near Desert Hot Springs, in San Gorgonio pass, one of the most expansive wind farms in North America. I have only a day shot of that scene, where the herd of giraffes can be seen as a mere white smudge on the horizon.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

No, I don’t know Russian but had the repeated pleasure of a dear friend who, after our weekly trysts, walked me line by line through her favourite poems in Russian, including others by Gumilev’s wife Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam and even Pushkin.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The moon is warm tonight, not breeze enough to stir the vanes of the wind mills grouped in groves of their own out beyond the manicured lawns and stands of palms which ring this landscaped spa oasis. I take them first as sunflowers basking in a pewter glow, swinging toward not light but the slightest … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Giraffes at San Gorgonio”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[90,35,25,41],"class_list":["post-3101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-desert","tag-dreams","tag-erotic-poetry","tag-flowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3101"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3101\/revisions\/4348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}