Observations and Insights
on the Nature of Things
This monthly column features brief essays, poems, poetic micro essays and photography by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post on the first of the month.
Its Own Brand of Grace
Inspired by, “We’re Gettin’ Western Now Boys,” a drawing by New Mexico artist, Robert Shufelt
The hair on the horse’s head,
so finely rendered in graphite
you can feel the texture,
rough and prickly at its edges.
The cattleman’s mustached face,
filled with rugged bravado,
dark hat brim shielding his eyes
from the harsh New Mexico sun.
The rope in his left hand
hanging slack, but at the ready
to lasso the horns or head
of a straying Hereford.
His right arm reaches upward
in a gesture of exhilaration.
His mouth is opened slightly,
the sound of a crisp “Yip!”
escaping his chapped lips.
We do not hear it with our ears,
yet the illustration brings to us
the thunderous stampede
of a thousand heavy hooves
on the packed dry dust
of the far-eastern prairie.
What lies just beyond
the edge of the rendering
is nonetheless present.
It’s a roundup of our history
extending westward across
cholla-dotted landscapes
to the flanks of the Sacramento
and ragged Sandia mountains.
A roundup of outposts
from earlier centuries
along historic trade routes,
the Santa Fe and Butterfield Trails,
the notorious Jornada del Muerto.
A roundup surging south
along the banks of the Rio Grande,
passing ancient adobe pueblos
where sacred chants and dances
still fill the earthen bu-ping-geh.
The monsoon river flows down
through fertile valleys to reservoirs,
to the old town of Hatch,
where the best chilies are grown.
Our state is a roundup of renowned
artistry in graphically designed pottery,
modern statuary, woven tapestry
and abstract landscapes on canvas.
A roundup of energy technologies.
Farms of solar panels and wind turbines,
oil fields and massive mining industries.
A roundup of unbridled wildness
in the Aldo Leopold and Gila,
where serene silence reigns
over Ponderosa pine, piñon
and alligator juniper.
A roundup of open range lands,
pecan orchards and high mesas
where robust radio telescopes
probe the known cosmos.
Yes, it’s a roundup,
but we know New Mexico
cannot be corralled
into any singular description.
It holds its own brand of grace,
a buoyancy of pure light,
a furious firing of the imagination
that overwhelming vastness elicits,
a unique perspective on the divine
that four horizons stretching
into copious emptiness inspires.
New Mexico is forever free-ranging!
Photo credit: “We’re Gettin’ Western Now Boys,” a drawing by New Mexico artist, Robert Shufelt
