MARTIAN DESERT AFTERNOON
(Dust Devils Three Miles High)
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
MARTIAN DESERT AFTERNOON (Dust Devils Three Miles High…) Hot winds blew all day from the south Out of the searing whiteness of the playa You remember the thin obsidian shadows Creeping across the desiccated land How the creosote bushes and greasewood Bent in the constant hot dry wind How I walked in a vast circle in the heat From the small hill where we camped How at dusk the wind died and we had A hundred mile expanse of mountains And sky all to ourselves Coyotes barking and yipping Back in the darkening foothills An immense dark stillness Settled over and around us The mysterious greenish streak Of a meteor crossing the sky Crickets began to chirp as we Sat quietly absorbing the desert At dawn the next day there Were strange dark clouds And more wind a sense of Danger thinking of the quick Violent storms of desert country Suddenly appearing out of nowhere Strange country Was your comment And I knew that It frightened you
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
MARTIAN DESERT AFTERNOON is an impressionistic collection of "poetic statements" about America, places and people, in the last half of the Twentieth Century—observations, impressions, descriptions. All of which contain perceptive insight on what is sometimes referred to as “Many a Vanished Sight…" There are moments when the perceptions seem almost at the point of madness, but generally the work is a sort of wandering psychedelic journey across America. And, at times, "into America…"
About the Author
DAYTON LUMMIS was born in New York City, and is a graduate of Yale University. He holds a Master’s Degree in American History from San Francisco State University. A professional historian, he has served as a Director of cultural history museums in locations as diverse as Cripple Creek, Colorado, and Santa Rosa, California. Currently he divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Philadelphia suburb of Saint David’s.