settling in at Ghost Ranch

8/9/11

My reading was the first of the series this evening. I read the entire last chapter of STAND THE STORM. It was well received. I hadn't looked at this material in quite a whie. It felt gratifying to have a positive feedback on it.



Coyotes and blackbirds - 8/10/11


howled furiously for several minutes this morning @6:15a. It was a piercing sound -- like the wail of ambulances -- calling and answering for several minutes. I couldn't see them or get my video camera set in time.

9:00a -- there are two large black birds who are cussing and cawing back and forth -- also seemingly in a fury. They are loud and relentless - perched in a tree side by side. Finally they fly away together.

9:56a -- a hay baler is pulled along the rows of mown hay and producing neat bales of the stuff.

10:30a -- we heard a wonderful keynote address by the incomparable Marilynne Robinson. She spoke in a quietly ferocious, wry manner. She exhorted us to respect and appreciate our minds and write from this place. She spoke to the troubling ideas about inadequacy in contemporary culture and suggested that we resist this at all cost. "Art pushes back."


In New Mexico the sun is the thing -- when it is up full, the heat blisters you. when clouds cover over a breeze is felt. when the sun is down the dark is total -- complete. but there is little fear in this total dark except to step on something that will bite. The moon is up high and bright and the stars are visible if clouds don't interfere. They are interfering tonight.

There are unaccustomed "things" here abouts. Snakes are known and flashlights are suggested for night walks. Lizards dart around and we are told to keep doors closed after dark so that these fellows don't come inside.

There are many more readings this evening -- under the full moon.

Bad policies/polices and hostile people

A bad thing - 8/7/11 - approx. 5:00p

occurred as I got off the train from Chicago and arrived in Albuquerque. It threatened to spoil much of my good mood. I had been elated at finally arriving and glowing from bidding my seat companion - a pleasant man who studies in Canada and lives in Mexico. "A Dios," I had said to him and he repeated when I left the seat. I saw the young man who had gotten off my train - in fact, had sat across from me. -- early 20's -- obviously looking Latino. I'd heard him speak Spanish on the train. In the station - not five minutes off the train - a policeman asked for his identification and questioned his purpose in coming to Albuquerque and, though he was polite in that nasty polite way of a cop exerting his authority, I was reminded that many people are hostile to people they believe are not in the U. S. legally. He had to show I.D and answer questions. It put an ugly taste in my mouth. I almost changed my mind about NM.
I continue to think about the incident. I heard the cop's voice -- questioning the young man who remained soft-spoken and forthcoming though he hadn't been talking on the train. I had thought of him as just another slouchy, unsmiling young boy whose pants were garish and low slung. I got swept with the feeling of maternal concern. I wanted to do something to the smug cop. Really. I got very angry. But I kept to my own business. The woman at the Amtrak information and ticket window was not courteous at first and I gave her a look that I would not have ordinarily used. And she got nicer and called a cab for me.

Pictures of the journey thus far