Articles by Bo Mackison

Communication – A Desert Wisdom Card

March 22, 2014 by Bo Mackison 1 Comment

Symbols pecked into boulders over a thousand years ago. What were the ancients saying in these prehistoric communications?

Though nothing is certain, it seems plausible that these rock figures were a means of communication. Whether they were symbolic, astronomical, directional, or ceremonial is not known. What is known is that these petroglyphs were a means of communication or documentation.

Imagine the many ways we communicate. Conversations, the written word, social media, body language, even in symbols and metaphors.

A trail through the western part of Saguaro National Park leads to Signal Hill.

Here a large mass of boulders featuring dozens of petroglyphs. The Hohokam chipped or pecked these petroglyphs into the desert varnish, the dark outer layer on rocks.

Some of the figures seem to tell a story — a hunter following a mountain lion or a deer.

Some are easily identified depictions — figures like humans, deer and wolves, snakes, turtles, and lizards, spirals and circles, mountain peaks and sun. But the meaning behind these simple etchings are mysteries.

Some are symbols that align at astronomical seasonal beginnings – solstices and equinoxes.

While hiking in a canyon, I met a scientist who had eight cameras triggered to photograph a rock wall of petroglyphs every few seconds. He kindly showed me a phenomenon he had been studying for several years. A spiral petroglyph splits — half in light/half in shadow — from sunlight shining through a narrow slit in the canyon rocks at the precise hour of the spring equinox.

While the petroglyphs hold onto many of their secrets, they still offer a glimpse into the world of people who lived over a thousand years ago, people who found a way to communicate with a sharp implement and a varnish covered rock.

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The first photograph in this series is the third preview card of the Desert Wisdom Cards Second Series now in the production stage. The words on the new series of cards are letter pressed, the photographs are printed, the cards are cut and trimmed. Currently I am assembling the cards and I’ve completed the design of the portfolio for the second series.

An announcement re: availability will be coming soon on my blog and newsletter.

Filed Under: Desert Wisdom Tagged With: ancient cultures, Arizona, communication, desert, Desert Wisdom Cards Second Series, Hohokam, petroglyphs, Saguaro National Park, Signal Hill, Sonoran Desert

On the Road to Why, Arizona

March 20, 2014 by Bo Mackison 6 Comments

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Checking the map, 112 miles to Why, then south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Highway 86, Ajo Highway, I head west on the road of roadside memorials
and shrines, over a hundred I photographed two years ago.

Through urban sprawl, then open space.
Silver Star Road, brown earth, barbed wire fences.
Robles Junction.
Water puddles in the irrigated fields at Buckelew Farms.

Fuller Road. Battered mailboxes line the road, a row of scraped paint,
crushed metal, gunshot holes and red flags.
But where are the shrines and crosses? Gone. Scraped from the desert.

Kitt Mountain is due west, mountain dotted with white observatories,
celestial connections on the highest peaks.
Telephone poles string across the desert scrub. Earthly connections.

Tucson Rifle Club. Members Only.
Hayhook Ranch Road. Ranch For Sale.
Watch For Animals Next 54 Miles.

Yellow bundles of brittlebush and desert marigolds crowd the median strip.
Gravel piles stands where once there were roadside memorials,
a road widening project and the adjacent desert has been scraped level.

A bush of orange mallow, waving stalks of purple pestemon,
white Ajo lilies, like bridal bouquets dropped along the road.
Tohono O’odham Nation. Green desert, red earth.

San Pedro Road. Coyote Trading Store, open for business no gas.
Asphalt shoulders, graded hills with rolls of burlap hold back the earth.
Where are the memorials? Relocated? or destroyed?

Pan Tak Road
Kitt Peak Ahead, Turn Left
Road construction Expect delays

The road is wide, the shoulders wide,
and safer for the driving living.
Less need for memorials on the side of the road.

Saguaros relocated from the easement, twenty feet tall, propped with 2 by 4s.
By law, saguaros must be relocated.
A saguaro must face its original direction, or it will die,
another road casualty.

Gouged earth. One giant saguaro still stands
upon the graded bank, its roots exposed and twisted in the air.
Yellow earth movers shovel the ancient earth into piles.

This is progress. A safe road is a good road.
A good road is a safe road.
Smooth and homogenized, the desert tamed.

Three hawks soar high. Far enough west, the road narrows.
Red plastic ribbons flutter from branches marked for the bulldozer.
But for now grasses encroach over the yellow lines.
Mesquite and tree cholla crowd the roadside.

A single white cross remains, decorated with butterflies and beads.
The peak of Baboquivari, I’itoi’s sacred mountain, pierces the desert-scape.
Border Patrol. Their green-striped white truck is parked
under a mesquite while they search the scrub.

Littering Unlawful
You Are Entering Sells, Arizona, Population 2734
Komkcʼeḍ ʼe-Wa:ʼosidk, Capital of the Tohono O’odham Nation
The O’odham name means Tortoise Got Wedged.

Indian Oasis School Baboquivari District
Watch For Animals Next 10 Miles
Papago Assembly of God

Highway 19 Junction, Hospital Here
The Shell gas station pumps regular for 3.47.
Two wild horses, white and shaggy, graze along the road,
unperturbed by passing trucks.

Eugene Tashquinth Livestock Complex hosts
76th Annual Tohono O’odham Rodeo
January 26 – February 4, 2014

Tree cholla forest.
Yellow flowering mesquite, seed beans swing in midday breeze.
Road to Nolia. Turkey vultures. Triple decker saguaro.

Quijotoa. A historical marker tells me
it is Papago for Mountain Shaped Like a Carrying Basket.
The carrying basket had pockets of gold and silver.
And a mining boom in 1883.

Ghost towns. Logan City, New Virginia, Brooklyn, Allen City,
there was only a small pocket of precious metal.
The desert reclaims the abandoned.

Highway 15 Junction to Santa Rosa Casa Grande.
Desert sprawl, yellow blossoming brittlebush color the cactus floor.
The road narrows, ocotillo arch over the pavement. Toothpick saguaros.
Quijotoa Pentecostal Church of God.

Red and purple bows tied to mesquite branches,
remaining traces of a roadside memorial.
The dirt is leveled, the pull-off blocked with a rock pile.

Flashing lights on a Park Ranger’s truck slow oncoming traffic.
Three teen runners jog in the truck’s exhaust fumes,
one carries a banner. Unity Runners.

Road to Pisinemo.
San Si:mon. Tohono O’odham High School.
San Simon Health Center.

Flash Flood Area Next 10 Miles
Why 18 miles. Ajo 28 miles
Chain cholla glitter silver in the sun.

HIWAYRVPRK next road. Shuck Toak Road
Desert Diamond Casino, asphalt parking lot.
Coyote Howl RV Park. Abandoned.

Highway Junction 86/85
Lukeville 27 miles. 10 miles to Ajo
Approaching Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, A Biosphere Reserve

12:46 pm. March 18. 86˚F.
Blue skies. Windy.
Relentless sun bleaches color from the desert.

The organ pipes loom tall,
massive and thick, multi-armed.
Alien. Grotesque. Beautiful.

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Not so much a poem, more a travel log.

Filed Under: Photography, Travel, Writing Practices Tagged With: Ajo Highway, Arizona, Arizona Highway 86, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, poetry, Tohono O'Odham Nation, Travel, travel poetry

Full Moon, Dust Moon, Heart Moon – A Poem

March 17, 2014 by Bo Mackison 3 Comments

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

A Poem to Commemorate the Last of Winter Moons

In the North, the earth softens,
the earthworms venture from warm earth, deposit their casts upon the ground,
robins return announcing the coming of Spring.

Full Worm Moon

Maple sap begins to run in the East,
signals time for tapping, maples announce the coming of Spring.
Flowing, flowing, alive.

Full Running Sap Moon

Throughout the lands, the Magpies caw,
loud and raucous, singing to the last of the winter moons.
Celebratory songs.

Full Magpie Moon

In snowbound regions, snow cycles through thaw and freeze,
a gradual loosening winter’s relentless hold. Anticipation of the melt.
Crusted snow, old snow, dwindling snow. Anticipation.

Full Crust Moon

In the Southwest, the winds twist, spiral, change direction the upper atmosphere,
touch the earth, red dust, and fling it high into the air.
But the full moon, reflecting light of the sun full face.
The moon does not disappear in the flying dust,
no, she hovers in a pastel aura, hazy and luminous.

Full Windy Moon

I see her slide above the mountain peaks, the gentle Santa Ritas,
fir trees silhouetted. Watch it suspended above the mountain ridge,
gentle reminder of the marking of months,
passing of seasons, turning years.

I spread a woven blanket, geometric colors come into soft focus, lit by moonshadow,
what luxury this lying upon earth in silence and harmony,
awakened to the energies of the full moon as she travels westward.

I close my eyes to the dusty particles,
bathed in moonlight, I drift and dream, content.

Full Heart Moon

Filed Under: Nature Explorations, Writing Practices Tagged With: Arizona, dust storm, full moon, poetry, Southwest

Challenge – A Desert Wisdom Card

March 15, 2014 by Bo Mackison 3 Comments

Sometimes the darkest challenges, the most difficult lessons, hold the greatest gems of light. ~ Barbara Marciniak

The desert is not all cacti and spaciousness.

Although much of the land is open, some desert habitats, especially the desert scrub lands, are open range. An occasional four strand barbwire fence follows the roadways, separating cattle from vehicles, and these barbed wire fences get entangled with clusters of tumble weed. Bare branched mesquite trees add a touch of the macabre. High winds and encroaching dark clouds transform the high desert into a scene evoking apprehension and concern.

Traveling the back roads in the desert region is one of my joys, but it is not without its dangers.

When storms approach without warning and the winds blow sands that block my vision, I must deal with challenges of rough weather. I usually find a place to shelter, knowing that I have packed enough supplies to see me through a delay. And while I am frightened at times by the stormy weather, once the clouds move on and the sun rays filter through the clouds, I appreciate the desert-scape bathed in golden light.

Without dark clouds and stormy weather for comparison, I wouldn’t be as appreciative of blue skies and gentle desert breezes.

There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet. ~ William Frederick Halsey, Jr.

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This is the second card in the preview of the second series of the Desert Wisdom Cards, now in the production stage. The words on the new series of cards are letter pressed, the 16 photographs for the second set are chosen and printed. The cards are mostly cut and trimmed. Still to come are assembly, packaging, and creating a new folio for this series. I’ll announce availability (soon) on my blog and in my newsletter.

Filed Under: Desert Wisdom Tagged With: challenges, desert, desert wisdom card, Desert Wisdom Cards Second Series, Sonoran Desert, storms

Awakening – A Desert Wisdom Card

March 12, 2014 by Bo Mackison 5 Comments

Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it. ~ Anne “Ninon” de L’Enclos

Sunlight peeks through the glimmering clouds.

The quails are scurrying from one pile of desert brush to the next, intent on crossing the arroyo unseen. Their camouflage antics are erratic, hesitant, but successful. The hummingbirds whirr about the spiky penstemon, drawing sweet nectar from the deep pink throats of the flowers. A cottontail, still like a garden ornament, hides under cover of the prickly pear. A roadrunner dances along the edge of the rocky arroyo edge, dipping his tail, flitting along.

All are alert. The world awakens as I watch the dawn break into day.

“We all woke up this morning and we had with it the amazing return of our conscious mind. We recovered minds with a complete sense of self and a complete sense of our own existence — yet we hardly ever pause to consider this wonder.”
~ Antonio R. Damasio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain.

Each morning we awaken to a new day, with routine experiences and unexpected opportunities.

How can I prepare so that I wake refreshed and ready to experience each moment of this precious, never-before-experienced day? How will I go through my day alert to the possibilities, aware of the gifts and offerings that are constantly present?

Am I awake to the gentle nudges, fleeting ideas, serendipitous encounters?

“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.”
~ John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

What makes you feel awake and alive?

What energizes you? What happenings and experiences feel expansive and joyful? How might you incorporate bits of joy into your daily activities?

“Wander around wonder for awhile and awaken wisdom within.”
~ Soul Dancer

Wander. Wonder. Awaken.

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Today I introduce the second series of the Desert Wisdom Cards, now in the production stage. Here is a preview of the AWAKENING card. The words on the new series of cards are letter pressed, the 16 photographs for the second set are chosen and being readied for printing. Still to come are paper cutting, assembly, packaging, and creating a new folio for this series. I’ll announce availability (soon) on my blog and in my newsletter.

Filed Under: Desert Wisdom Tagged With: awakening, being fully present, desert, desert wisdom card, Desert Wisdom Cards Second Series, sunrise