“Brevity/Neomexicana” image and poem by Mary Roalstad
Dear reader,
be unruly
as the seasons here are transient
And frequently lapse
back and forth
back and forth
Por ejemplo:
One bright New Mexico day
Ranunculus cardiophyllus
Mi corazón
springs back
enthusiastic
fooled by fresh rain and renewed autumn sunshine
que ingenuidad
Seasons make for fickle friends
so please
let your eye travel
Early Spring:
the vallés slow to awaken
cold curling
into my soggy socks
conversations creeping
at a painful pace
small seeds sown
with a prayer to the sun
I see the light arrive
In his eyes
we feel the first rays of warmth
we open our minds
A boom: A bloom
slowly and then all at once
every
little
thing
demands attention
I am learning so fast
I speak in questions
I answer in nods
I am swimming amidst a binomial sea
The Dog Days: Mr. Sun
for days and days
relentless
heat upon heat
they call it angry August
we are jumping fences
we are slogging through warm mud
we are running
fast
to feel a slight wind
small movement
in the impeccably still night
Monsoons: Thick Morning Fog
fills the wide belly of the caldera
what sleep slow to shake
from my heavy eyes
a mist never rising
from my clouded head
in the vast vallé
distraction
distraction
his lithe outline
cutting through dense air
sigue adelante
I follow
Second Sun: Is that you again, Summer?
sedges splintering apart
grass
brittle brown
elk bugle from the pines
his soft eyes
flit to mine
then back to sunbaked earth
focus
focus
we are tired now
First Frost: Decay
corn lilies
falling to the ground
melodramática
the burst of a thousand tiny deaths
gaudy in their reds and oranges and yellows
I didn’t know I had bought a ticket
to the theatre
my senses are filled
a final feast for eyes and nose and heart
as the last leaves drop to the ground
my job is done
never make life decisions in stick season
they say
at least they say in Vermont
did they tell congress?
We are furloughed
waiting lonely
dispersed like seeds
to the wind
for life to begin again
oh stability
¿dónde estás?
the backs of the mountains are bare
shoulders
shoulders
no longer blazed orange
we are naked
as naked as Cerro Grande
after Las Conchas blazed
as naked as the feeling after sex
when you remember yourself again
oh endings
you never fail to make me cry
And I beg you, dear reader
why am I here?
where am I going?
Oh, She’s a Biggie
ask silently and await answers impatiently
Winter: Wood Smoke
rises from the eaves
tiny ice crystals
kaleidoscope on leaves
brilliant patterns
followed by breaking glass
rest
rest
at last
we are still
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Mary Roalstad Artist Statement:
I am a painter and writer.
What does my writing/art mean to me?
It means the flow state. In this space, time is not passing and I am not existing. I am processing the world, constant information, and the feedback of the earth into a medium that I understand. Most importantly, I am taking raw love and positive energy from the Earth and (hopefully) acting as a translator, and interpreter, sharing that energy via wavelengths that illicit an emotive response in the reader or viewer.
