Flying down the coast to where fat palm trees and those tall and thin as a column of smoke stand over desert wildflowers, rose bushes, conifers, whiffs of creosote and sage in warm salty air. After a long delay between flights, there are many different species of fish that breathe air, live part of their life on land, and walk about. The boundary between water and land is quite porous and bridged by modern fish from around the world. In fact, this morning's sun rose from behind the five million year old Santa Ynez Mountains. Later, after lapping the beach's long neck, Poseidon's brine left behind small stones, empty shells and seaweed stranded between toes.
Thus, a sea has died. its water fled.
All rest is denied in its ancient bed.
And where, now, will its ghost, its shade,
that cannot flourish, will not fade, be found?
Due East of here, around 9,000 years ago a drying-out began. Mule deer, foxes, rabbits, coyotes, lizards, snakes, rain-water stored in tinajas, rock basins. A creation myth was handed down, making this a place of supernatural power, while uninscribed visions of artists continued to trace "the place my mind came into being."
As the sea flows back toward Asia, behind me a continent spreads out a panorama of signs and symbols, what is seen and not seen, "down to the stone itself."
"People in many other societies do not necessarily recognise such a firm distinction between mineral and non-mineral, animate and inanimate. This blurring of boundaries means that minerals in many societies are attributed with qualities and properties that most people in Western societies accord only to humans, animals, plants and/or the divine."
