The Desert Wind – a poem by Mark Tulin

Many thanks to one of my favorite sites on spirituality, Amethyst Review, for publishing The Desert Wind. Featured photo by Mark Tulin.

~The Desert Wind, by Mark Tulin~

There’s an eastern wind from the desert
that blows
dry air into a big swirl.

The wind whispers a strange
melody, a discordant rhythm,
an odd rhyme, a pause that could delay
or destroy.

It is a song of surprise and suspense.
It is a song of sorrow and dread.
It stops our lives.
It steals our families from the hillsides.

It blows the fertile fields bone dry,
engulfs our hearts, and softens our hope.
It disrupts our sense of place
and time.

It burns the browns and greens,
the yellow of the golden reeds.
It moves along the sloping mountainside,
blowing embers along the foothills,
burning flakes of smoldering trees.

It crosses highways.
It sparks old memories.
Flames that soar so high that it touches
the roof of the sky.

We never know which way the wind will blow.
We never know how fast or slow.
The fire is unleashed and set free–
a spirit that travels on its own accord.