The Desert, on meeting her for the first time

She is ripe with vastness. You can but sit in the palm of her hand and hope to see the whole of her. And when you look into her eyes - and you can feel it too - her ancientness and her treachery becomes apparent.

At first you only see how very dry she is, how very fierce she is, how she sinks her fangs of heat and aridness into the back of your neck and claims you - claims the dust in you. You begin to realize that the dust in you is actually hers - it never was yours in the first place.

She makes you see fountains when there are none. She teaches you what water is - She is an answer to the question - who is the ocean?

Her sun is brilliant and strong and dominant; & when he rides, you must bow down and hide. He is young and arrogant. But she can easily bury him in her folds. And she might do such a thing if she favors you.

At first, yes, she is terrible to behold like some evil demonic queen - powerful and spiteful and vengeful - overflowing wth spite, spit and hiss.

But lying in her palm, when you surrender, when you submit yourself to her openess - her monotonous infinite continuity - she envelopes you within herself and enters your being. You can feel her on your skin, in your hair, in your nostrils, on your lips - you taste her on your tongue, even, and lastly her emptiness and silence occupies your mind.

She penetrates you and reveals herself by revealing you to yourself. You are a nothingness too. You are barren. You are empty. You are filled with the divine, with particles of 'stars and heavens' and drops of light. You are both - whole and a part of the whole. She is beautiful to behold, then. You plunge your hand into her - and you can sense the life in her sands. You can feel the warmth lurking there - you can feel a pulse there - her sand is alive; it is like feeling some huge beast which is living and yet dormant. She is the unity of numerous-countless particles, and she exists in each and every minute grain. And when she lies in your palm, she blesses you almightiness - you are holding all of her - her totality is floating, there, in the palm of your hand.

And as she slips through your fingers or disappears on the wisps of wind, you know that she is 'freedom and wildness' incarnate - no man will ever be able to tame her, rule her, or claim her.