Holy – A Poem

Saguaro Spines ©2016 Bo Mackison

Saguaro Spines ©2016 Bo Mackison

Holy.

No cavernous urban building required.
No echoes of voices preaching or admonishing.

Holy is sunlight sprinkling luminous colors throughout the land
and voices raised in song, joyful or penitent,
in praise or petition. Mix with rushing wind
through canyon slots, desert grasses. Add thunder. Holy.

Have you ever heard the wind whistle through cactus spines? Holy.
Inhaled the rain scent of desert dust and creosote shrubs? Holy.
Watched rock turn to glowing orange as sun sets over desert lands? Holy.
Praised the stars, ever-present and infinite in their number? Holy.

Holy is vermilion rock, gray-green plants,
black varnished cliffs, the soaring of a red-tailed hawk,
the skittering of a wood rat, the trill of a cactus wren.

Holy is the search for one’s inner calling, listening to a voice
nearly silenced. Holy is breathing fierce with full-on living.

Holy is exuberance. Holy is gratitude.
Holy is despondency. Holy is hanging on.

Holy is emotion.
Holy anger. Holy outrage.

Holy is not held within godly boundaries;
holy is the full embrace of one’s humanity.

Holy is the extra-ordinary in the ordinary of the everyday.

This moment. Yes
this very moment.
Holy.

~~~~~~~~

Annie Dillard writes, “In any instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger.” I find the sacred in the swipe of nature’s finger…in the desert, in the writing of poetry.

A Sonoran Desert Gift – Saguaro Cactus in Bloom

Sagauro Flower - Like A Wax Specimen

Saguaro Flower – Like A Wax Specimen ©2014 Bo Mackison

A saguaro forest is awe-inspiring any time of the year.

But it is even more spectacular during May and June when many saguaros are topped with highly decorative, three-inch wide yellow-centered, white blossoms.

Four Saguaro Flowers

Four Saguaro Flowers ©2014 Bo Mackison

The flowers open at night.

They are highly fragrant, like overripe fruit, and attract the lesser long-nosed bat, a nocturnal creature and its most prolific pollinator. Flowers stay in full bloom throughout the next morning, then they quickly shrivel into a crispy brown shell.

Many saguaro, especially the older ones, have hundreds of flowers. Only a few flowers bloom in a single day, yet the saguaro flowering season lasts eight to ten weeks.

Saguaro Cactus in Bloom

Saguaro Blossom like a Trumpet ©2014 Bo Mackison

Bats are ideal pollinators.

Since the flowers are positioned high in the air, they are easily accessible to the swooping bats plus the blossoms are extremely durable – they look like they are dipped in wax! – and are able to withstand the bat’s weight.

The flowers produce some nectar after sunrise, and so also attract bees and doves during the day, but to a lesser degree.

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Macro Saguaro ©2014 Bo Mackison

A few flowers bloom at eye level, especially on cacti whose arms are drooping towards the ground.

It takes some persistent searching – and luck – to find a blossom that can be photographed up close and personal. Most of the flowers are high atop the cacti, twenty to forty feet in the air!
Saguaro Flower

Life Cycle of Saguaro Blossoms ©2014 Bo Mackison

The blossoms that are pollinated develop into deep red, fleshy fruits in late June.

Not only do the fruits feed the bird and animal populations of the desert, they are also a traditional food of the Tohono O’odham. These people once harvested the fruits using long poles fashioned from cactus ribs. The tradition still persists, though on a limited basis.

Essence of Place — Brown Mountain in the Sonoran Desert

Exploring Brown Mountain © 2014 Bo Mackison

Here are limitless views of desert vegetation, strange giant cacti forms, rock formations uprising sharply into forms and craggy peaks almost unreal to strangers and ever fascinating in the changing flood of desert light. ~ C. B. Brown

For several years, I thought Brown Mountain was named for its predominately reddish-brown rocky face, a face studded with whiskers of toothpick saguaro cacti. Then I researched the origins of Brown Mountain, a small rounded mountain located in the Sonoran Desert in Tucson Mountain Park, just west of Tucson Arizona, and discovered it was named in honor of C. B. Brown (1889-1979) the foremost advocate for keeping the Tucson Mountain region a natural space.

Under Brown’s guidance and continued efforts, the Tucson Mountain region was closed to mining and homesteading in 1926, and preserved in its natural desert state for the enjoyment of all.

Cactus Arms © 2014 Bo Mackison

The scenic qualities, luxuriance and variety of desert flora, abundance of wild life, and historical romance of the land are accepted material bits. ~ C. B. Brown

On Top of Brown Mountain

On Top of Brown Mountain © 2014 Bo Mackison

More fascinating is the intangible charm and spell of the desert region where the haze of the mountain ranges meet the blue of the sky and the desert impressive in its cloak of utter silence awaits the nature lover. ~ C. B. Brown

The Brown Mountain Trail has trail heads at both the Brown Mountain Picnic Area and the Juan Baptiste Picnic Area. It’s a five-mile hike, up, around, and back, with distant vistas at every turn. The views are especially great considering the minimal effort required to reach the peak.

The hike covers undulating ridges with views of Tucson Mountains and distant views of The Santa Ritas, Kitt Peak and other far away mountain ranges. Baboquivari, the sacred peak of the Tohono O’odham Nation and traditional home of I’itoi, the creator-god of the land, can be seen on a clear day.

There is a huge diversity of flora and fauna, easily a cross-section of what is found in the nearby region.

CCC Shelter in Brown Mountain Picnic Area © 2014 Bo Mackison

No portrait of the Brown Mountain area would be complete without a photograph of the historical picnic area built by the Citizen Conservation Corps in the 1930s. You might notice a camera pack, a hiking stick, and a pile of books on the concrete table. This is my office away from my office – I can often be found working here when the desert sun works its magic and calls me to the desert.

Brittlebush © 2014 Bo Mackison

Recent rain has brought yellow and green to the desert floor. Most of the common flowers are yellow — brittle-bush, desert marigold, acaia, mesquite, and many more.

Mesquite Near Brown Mountain © 2014 Bo Mackison

And when the rains come, the trees, often without leaves in the more arid times, sprout tiny specks of leaves. From a distance the trees show lovely and soft green forms.

Sonoran Desert in Brown Mountain © 2014 Bo Mackison

I am no longer surprised at the diversity of plants, cacti, and trees I see in the Sonoran Desert, how they are so openly spaced in order to provide each plant with needed rain and nutrients from the ground, but I am often taken aback by how “manicured” the desert often seems — as if a landscape gardener comes out early every day to rake the rocks, put all in place.

The Essence of Place – Exploring King’s Canyon in Saguaro National Park

Three Cacti

Three Saguaro © 2014 Bo Mackison

Saguaro National Park is all about saguaros!

There are deep canyons, endless desert, blue forever sky, the play of light and shadow, but the biggest draw are the iconic cacti of the Sonoran Desert, the giant saguaros.

Saguaro Cactus - A View from Above

Saguaro Cactus – A View from Above © 2014 Bo Mackison

It is not often the tip of a cactus arm is easily captured, but on the Kings Canyon hike in Saguaro National Park, the mountain path rises above a stand of mature saguaros.

King Canyon, Saguaro National Park

Kings Canyon © 2014 Bo Mackison

Kings Canyon is dry on this sunny February day.

But after a heavy rain, raging flood waters can fill this canyon and overflow to the surrounding desert. A rock dam blocks this part of the canyon.

King Canyon, Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park © 2014 Bo Mackison

A stand of 50 to 75-year-old cacti, none yet sprouting arms. Typically a cactus will develop arms between 70 and 100 years, and can live 150 to 200 years.

Petroglyph Canyon Wall

Petroglyph Canyon Wall © 2014 Bo Mackison

Deep in the canyon, the desert varnish is marked with ancient petroglyphs. Snakes, spirals, human and animal figures are just a few of the many symbols.

Yipes Stripes, Saguaro National Park Visitor Center

Stripes, Saguaro National Park Visitor Center © 2013 Bo Mackison

Light and shadow is a large part of the desert experience, and even the buildings offer a light/shadow experience. The Visitor Center at the Tucson Unit of Saguaro National Park has a large outdoor ramada.

Stripes and saguaros!

Reverence – A Desert Wisdom Card

Saguaro Cactus - Saguaro National Park

Saguaro Cactus Crone © 2013 Bo Mackison

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life, we become good, deep, and alive. ~ Albert Schweitzer

 What is reverence?

It is deep respect. It honors the presence of the sacred in everything – people, animals, plants. This includes respect for the land and for those sustained by the land.

When I look at this photograph of this aged saguaro, I see an ancient saguaro crone. There are small flower buds on the tips of her arms. She surveys the desert earth, thankful for the earth that sustains her, thankful for the flowers soon to bloom, for the bees and bats which will pollinate her flowers, for the fruit that will set, and for the birds and animals that will eat her fruits and spread the saguaro seeds, seeds of potential new life.

Reverence generates a simultaneous movement upward and downward within the interior of the subtle body, our deepest place of perception. The Upward movement brings recognition of a spiritual essence. The more mysterious Downward movement entails descent into the deep ground of Being. To inhabit both movements at once equates with reverence.
~ Karen Jaenke

The saguaro, one of the largest life forms in the desert, has wide roots in the desert earth.

Her arms stretch high into the sky; she connects the earth and the sky. We admire these plants, the connectors of earth and the heavens. Yet, we too stand rooted upon the earth. We raise our arms into the air, our fingertips touch the sky. There is no line of demarcation between the blue skies we gaze at with awe and the skies that swirl about our very beings. We, with reverence, connect earth and sky.

Always and in everything, let there be reverence. ~ Confucius

REVERENCE offers questions/reflections for journal writing, art prompts, and calls to action:

  • Imagine yourself in the pose of the ancient saguaro crone. What are you holding in reverence?
  • How can you show reverence for yourself, other people, and the plants, animals and things that are present in your ordinary life?
  • Barry Lopez, in his book, Journeys on the Threshold of Memory, writes about his history by documenting the things his hands have done in his life. How might you tell a part of your story using the same idea as a creative seed? What might you use to document the exquisite miracles that your hands have performed? Would you use written words, an oral history, still photographs, a short video, or other media?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo is creating a deck of Desert Wisdom Cards for exploration and discovery, using photography and a Sonoran Desert theme – its myths and stories, cultures and heritage, and the desert’s remarkable natural beauty and resources.