Desert Poems by R. C. Sison

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BEDOUIN Sun to sun over shifting sand, They navigate with mystic hand; Astride their mounts in drifting bands, They ride away to distant lands. Copyright © 1995 Raymond C. Sison. All rights reserved.

THIRST My heart cried out     through dry, cracked lips For love beyond its finger tips. Day after day     with sun-beaten face It roamed about a barren place. Searching this desert     for a drop of dew It found an oasis--you. Thirsty for so long     it drank from pure bliss: A river of life--your kiss... Copyright © 1995 Raymond C. Sison. All rights reserved.

Some notes from the author: I wrote these two poems in early August of 1995. "Thirst" gradually coalesced as I rode as a passenger up and down Highway 1 over the Golden Gate Bridge to and from Sonoma County. "Bedouin" sprang to mind one night as I tried to fall asleep. An English teacher I once had in high school told me that this was his favorite of all my poems. He said it captured the "music of a desert wind". (How flattering!) He also admired the sprinkling of rhyme, assonance, consonance, alliteration, and meter...