What is this?

These are journal entries and emails from my travels in South America in the winter of 2001-2002. My idea was to publish a book on my travels. But I keep not doing that, not only because of a busy life but because somehow it doesn't seem like a good idea to put that much more paper into the world. Plus, what if no one wants to read it?? I will be posting the manuscript I have been working on for the past few years in segments and in some sort of order, so that you can read through from beginning (oldest post) to end (newest post), or just pick out interesting bits and pieces.

Themes: political awakening, feminism, relationships, travel not tourism, post 9/11 international travel, anthropology, etc.

12 November 2007

An Ocean of Clouds: One Year Ago Today (a poem)

An Ocean of Clouds: One Year Ago Today

(upon remembering, standing on the western edge of the Andes, staring at a sea of clouds which is the only thing between us and the Pacific Ocean far, far below)

an ocean of clouds hovers in front of me
thick and light like balls of cotton
it pushes up slightly and breaks over the ground where I stand
I am nothing
I am flat on my back with the weight of clouds and memories
bearing down
my body shivers as much from cold as from
the absolute ecstasy of finding myself on the inside of a cloud
the ground loses meaning
I might as well be dreaming or flying or dead
the parts of my body too lose meaning
disconnected
atoms of my brain scatter, lost in salty cloud breath
I can smell the pacific
hear and feel the waves crashing over me
I am lost and found
I am nothing
thoughts occur in pieces
mixed with brine, hydrogen, oxygen, cotton and the secret parts of clouds
each one carried in a different direction I can not even conceive of
as I am cycled back to the beginning of time
in an infinity of pieces and
a shattering of essence
into salty ocean womb
and the warming of the sun

I am nothing

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