Enga mellom fjella

Ivory irises

Ivory irises

Silent above the stillness, broken by the lark,
small turtles glint, emeralds that cross these empty paths
where grass grows down the middle of the stony road,
where humans are rarely touched, heard or seen.
Who'll stop to smell the ivory irises that bloom
along the road to Rosalia, if not me?

© 2004 Kåre Enga [161.162] 2004-05-10

Came across this in an old memo pad that needs editing. It is a memory of driving down a lonely stone highway through the Flint Hills in the Spring of 2004. I've always wanted to take that trip again. I remember the day quite well.

ME:

Other than having my meatloaf and eating every green bean (Yes, mom.), I have done little so far.

Last night however, met a playwright, Donna Ziegenhorn who wrote "The Hindu and the Cowboy".

http://www.hinduandcowboy.com/author.html

She was in Lawrence to discuss how one would go about writing a play about the homeless. There were different thoughts of course. One person wanted the presentation to include the businessmen and others to present a 'balanced' presentation. I am more for the homeless telling their own stories. (I don't think everything needs to be balanced ... 'equal time' skews everything towards the priviledged who already control the media, the culture, the halls of government and have stifled the voices of the oppressed quite well, thank-you. I don't think anyone would dare suggest that the "Vagina Monologues" need to include a Catholic priest giving the 'other' side of it for instance. As if he would/should/could know! )

We met at Sean and Lisa's home. They are a unique family. Meeting their sons Corban (14) and Caleb (11) only confirms that! I'd met them before, but had forgotten that I'd met them 3 years ago. Sean asked me whether I had written the "Tenth Street Shuffle" . I said yes. Apparently I'd read it to him/them at Danforth Chapel and 'transformed the way I looked at this town' (his words). So nice that I inspired someone to look beyond the shiny scrubed surface of a college town. That he would remember after 3 years made my day.

WEATHER:

Did anyone notice hurricane season is over? Olga didn't! She's churning through the Caribbean headed west. Too bad she isn't forecast to veer north and give Alabama some of the rain that the Dominican Republic doesn't need.

As for here: the ice storm brought down a limb from one of our elm trees; however, there was no damage and around town no outages, etc. that I know of. We missed the worse of it. Yesterday, however, a homeless person died in Oklahoma City due to hypothermia during the ice storm that hit them severely.

Kansas: 32º and icy.

1282