FEATURED: American Landscape and Other Poems
by Deborah Rutherford
AMERICAN LANDSCAPE
"I had a book with me…
but I preferred reading the American landscape as we went along.
Every bump, rise, and stretch in it mystified my longing."
― Jack Kerouac
I.
The American landscape drifted,
dim and mysterious,
covered in endless stars.
Delicious air rushed in—
hair strands whipped.
With every bump and rise
there was a dreamy sweetness—
such majesty
as the snow moon full
swung low.
My eyes swallowed stellar treasure.
How diminutive I was
as vastness stretched her bareness.
With parched lips
from salted chips,
a hoarse whimper
escaped my aching throat.
II.
At sunrise, party favors exploded
while the black and smooth-as-oil
highway slipped by.
The horizon dropped off,
and I relaxed my grip,
sweaty on the wheel.
III.
Yellow haze
turned the desert orange
with ancient granite sculptures,
wind-shaped dunes,
and other lonesome travelers.
A loud shriek echoed
through the wilderness
in the high noon sweat.
IV.
Setting rays reached,
and the Saguaro Cati fingers
longed to touch the Heavens.
VI.
I only wanted to stretch out
and fly like an eagle
or run wild like coyotes.
Instead, I pulled over
and picked desert flowers,
holding a bouquet,
flat on my back on a large boulder.
VII.
Holy palaces fashioned
out of rock formations
bled red that afternoon
in the arid and barren land.
Trees bent with grace,
and there was a mystery
in the peace of the highway
where there was a slight breeze,
not moving anything.
I searched for God and myself.
And there,
I found both.
VIII.
There's something you discover
when your mind is on fire,
blazing through the night,
heading home on the highway.
THE HOLY WILD
The vivid red bird,
stark on the vanilla railing,
flew off to the Myrtle.
In the misty morning
I reached for the sun
only to find clouds.
I stepped into the moss
to stick my nose
into a just-born gardenia
and drank her sweet aroma,
a bit like delicious dark chocolate.
There were probably sounds
of cars, mowers, and a plane overhead,
but the flowers silenced it all,
like sound barriers,
portals to another world,
another garden.
And when the winds of despair gathered,
I found refuge there
where I was free
to wander, seek, and wonder
in the Holy Wild.
I wondered:
When man first walked out of the garden,
what did he leave behind?
The rain drizzled and tickled
while my husband tended
to a bent sunflower
who needed his gentle twine.
Again, I wondered:
Do the trees mind the cars passing by?
Have we lost touch with our garden selves?
Will God swoop everything up
and take it back to Heaven with him?
Can we return to the Holy Wild?
SURRENDERER
1.
The wild is always ready
to take back the city
like a red-weathered barn weeping,
swathed in moss and lichen;
high grass shot through
abandoned posts.
2.
An emerald blanket of Kudzu
shrouded the neighborhood
like ancient temples in the jungle—
jewels long gone
surrendered to the wild.
Almost holy,
as nature's earthy scent
bended
what we left behind
into works of art.
3.
Trees spurted, and vine foliage
bedecked the abandoned buildings
as feathered flocks resettled.
Wolves, wild horses, and boars
roved the rampant forest,
where radiation and no-trespassing signs
chased man away;
the wild reclaimed its place.
4.
The night awakened,
and I slipped out the front door
to retrieve the mail.
But the deer were in the yard,
and our eyes met,
so I decided to go back inside—
for theirs was the outside,
in the nocturnal,
grazing under
an almost full moon.
DEBORAH RUTHERFORD
Deborah Rutherford, a writer, poet, and makeup artist, draws inspiration from her redemption story and nature to create work that is both beautiful and faith filled. Born in Spain and raised in Southern California, she and her husband, Don, now call Georgia home. Deborah is of Mexican American, Irish, Welsh, and English descent and holds a Communication Arts and Theater degree from Loyola Marymount University. She founded the Behold-Her Beauty Blog and Podcast at www.deborahrutherford.com.
Currently, she is working on her debut poetry collection, a testament to her redemption story with her editor and creative counselor, Kimberly Phinney, as well as beauty and faith book. Her writing has been published in The Way Back to Ourselves Journal, Aletheia Today Magazine, Vessels of Light Journal, Calla Press Literary Journal, The Truly Co. Magazine, Austur Magazine, and Prosetrics Literary Magazine. Follow her journey on Substack https://deborahrutherford.substack.com/ and Instagram @deborahrutherfordwrites.