Friday, May 2, 2014

New Mosaic - "Our Lady of the Waters"

"Our Lady of the Waters" (2014)
 I've been experimenting with clay and my collection of Afghani fabric presses.  There is something so wonderful about putting these antique presses, all cut by hand, to use again - they have so much spirit or mana in them.  This piece is dedicated to WATER, which is so important here in the desert.  Without the blessings of the Lady of the Waters, there is no life.
Lady of the Desert Spring

Nuestra Senora de las Aguas,

Our lady of the Arroyo,

Come quietly to us,

Come to us, and hear our prayers,

For  those who suffer thirst,

Spread your mantle of green and turquoise

 Among the red, parched lands

Bright artery of life

Nuestra SeƱora de las Aguas

Mother of the cottonwoods, the Palos verdes,

Snake and mallow, coyote and child

Hear our prayers

O desert spring,
Our lady of the  waters.
Tile made from antique Afghani fabric press (2014)
The Song of the Dry River

Dry.  All you hear
 is the litany of traffic,

a dusty haze obscuring the distance.
Nothing sounds now
where once water  sang
among the stones,
voices of the living
where once a river ran
a river, once, here

before  cattle came,
 the cars
the mines
living as if the waters
would always flow
to green the red and barren lands

as if the breast would never run dry.

As if  there none yet unborn
Who must know  thirst.

Are there only stones
And pottery shards
Left to remember me?
I sing to their  ghosts now,
I sing
where once a river ran .

(2002)