The Cheese Mountains of the Moon

(As always, click on a slideshow to see larger versions at PicasaWeb; also, sometimes the captions are out of sync with the images in the blog)

Yay! Found wifi! The signal in the library in Las Cruces or somewhere around there (they're starting to blur; must keep better notes) crapped out on me. In Albuquerque now; much glorious scenery and internally productive time lately. New Mexico is indescribable. Here are some pix; more coming in a few days.

Sitting Bull Falls

an oasis

in the mountains

moss and diamond drops

and pools

bluer than blue

White Sands - pictures don't start to do it justice, and words even less so

this alien sahara in our midst

where we sled down sand

whiter than snow

get lost among ever-moving dunes

glaciers of dust

ringed by far-off mountains

and clouds

trudge through the drifts

to the source of the whiteness

let it scour skin

(let - ha! try to stop it)

and abrade reason

until there is only

mound upon cloud upon mound

curves

ridges

the occasional reptile

if I lay down here

how long would it take

to make me disappear?

a day

or less

but I stay on the surface

sliding down in my purple saucer

kin to the little Aga in Wallace and Grommit

that always wanted to ski

and finally did

on the cheese mountains of the moon.

this place was magic

like none I have seen so far

I will come back

with a polarizing filter

and tripod

and twilight

or dawn

but for now, this is a pallid reflection of what I saw: