Our group has been spending a lot of time camping out in the field the past few months working on Seeds of Success seed collecting, vegetation monitoring for past fires, and completing a little bit of weeds work. With so many days spent out in the grand expanses of the Great Basin desert, I have had ample time to observe this ecosystem, revel in its beauty, and attempt to put into words my experiences.

This poem is one of the attempts I have made to put the desert into words. While I realize one cannot possibly use words to give justice to the desert, I thought I would try to convey one small portion. The poem focuses on the two extremes I face each week when I bounce back and forth between living in the desert for work and living in a city on the weekends. Enjoy!

Desert Peace, City Melancholy
Quiet, noise
Unhurried, restless
Stillness, bustling
Open, constricted
Plants, people
Coyotes, dogs
Sagebrush, lilacs
Stars, streetlights
Cadence, cacophony
Humbled, prideful
Unrelenting, comfortable
Moments, minutes
Rocks, concrete
Wild, tamed

Content to stay, anxious to leave

-Maggie Gray-

Until next time, enjoy the fall season!

Maggie Gray, Carson City BLM