Sipapu

My place is the space

between deserts: one

made of sandstone, painted red.

Here, I see turlough violets

inside every sego lily.

The other: grey limestone

where beneath each blackthorn tree

I smell sweet ash of a lone juniper;

I hear a canyon wren

in the lapwing's weep,

and the crannogs I circle

become kivas. My place is here--

and there--where I know

the veil between this world

and the other is thin. Rocks speak

of the Tuatha De Danann, or Hohokam,

and primeval memories stir

from the sipapu within,

bidding me to leave

one place for the other.

photo copyright Ilsa Thielan

Between Deserts explores rooted and uprootedness; belonging and yet not belonging to the places we dwell physically, mentally, spiritually. The collection draws on connections the author makes of her life as experienced in the West of Ireland where she has lived, the American West where she resides, and the deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia. (Work in Progress)