Baja Bernie - 7-13-2006 at 03:14 PM
This is the one that the bajarunner was blabbing about the other day.
At the risk of boring all of you I have posted it just to make him happy. Iit will be included in my new book, ?Think you know Baja? which challenges
the reader to evaluate the commonly accepted ?history? of Baja.
Bernie, with tongue in cheek, created a ?Magic Flying Serape,? fueled by high grade tequila, to take his readers back in time?to experience a Baja
that is........... seldom even alluded to by others. (submitted to a new book catalog)
A Harsh and Beautiful Land
Hot winds blow out of the deserts, over the mountains and into the sea. A tough and beautiful land, wind screaming, sand flowing, scorching the soul.
Testing animals, birds, plants and man.
A harsh and beautiful land, sun, moon and stars caress this mystical and enchanted place illuminating its vastness and stark beauty. Heat, dust,
dryness, quiet, serenity and peace. All constant companions to those few who know.
Rain so rare, clouds scurry, ever so softly across the sky. Growing into an unrelenting force. A tough and beautiful land where a man has a
choice?stand and welcome what comes?or run away and hide. Most prefer to stand, legs braced to feel its life forces and hope for rain to cool this
terribly parched land.
Orange-red sun awakening, driving away the dawn, chasing the shadows away. Bursting forth, rushing into the sky, over the Vermillion sea. A land of
silence, harshness, beauty and pain. Clouds form slowly over the islands, moving rapidly onto the land.
Keening of the wind, hackles rise, assaulting the senses. The shriek?of a hurricane crashing on the shore. Once dry arroyos, flowing full, boiling out
to sea. Propelling waves of water, destroying, recasting and changing this tough and beautiful land.
A land of silence, harshness, beauty and pain. A land like no other?Baja!
Bernie Swaim
February 2003
Bruce R Leech - 7-13-2006 at 05:55 PM
replies are on this thread
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=18261
Al G - 7-13-2006 at 09:40 PM
Not all of them Bruce.
Loved it Bernie. Makes one pause with thought. I have looked, but have I seen?
Kate
Baja Bernie - 7-14-2006 at 08:19 AM
That line expresses exactly how Baja used to be back in the 40's and up until the very late 70's--really fun then to brace yourself against a wind off
of the Pacific that had thousands of miles of uninterrupted ocean to gather steam. I have only been in the tail end of a hurricane in the Cortez but
even that was something else. Much tamer but many folks continue to brace themselves and take what she offers.--Just look at Judy's post on "Too
little and too late" to see that she (Baja) can still throw 'stuff' our way.