This column features Tripod Poems, poetic micro essays inspired by three randomly chosen words. These words become the title of the piece, are contained within the piece and are developed into observations on life in the Southwest and beyond.

Essence – Remedy – Counter-balance
What is fundamental nature,
the core quality of home;
of feeling at home,
of embodying querencia?
Merriam-Webster defines home
as, “a congenial environment.”
Home, I would hope,
is a place or condition
that compensates
for the harshness
of the larger world,
provides a remedy
for daily tribulation.
Home is not static,
not a placard painted
with a platitude.
Life is unpredictable,
the tender balance
of loss and gain
a perpetual pendulum.
Querencia, that essence
of belonging in a place,
is the best counter-balance
to the constant sway
of turbulent experience.
I deeply relate
to the unbounded landscapes
of New Mexico.
For a decade,
I have embraced
this majestic state
as the arid color palate
with which to paint
my evolving portrait
of an intimate homeland.
I long to infuse
my perceptions
with the overlay
of being rooted in place,
a potent poultice
of piñon, ponderosa,
distant mesas and
cedar incense.
Dancing along
blended definitions,
I shed my heritage
of mutability and adhere
to the call of being
grounded in awe.
Photo Credit: “Canyon View, Alamogordo,” Eve West Bessier, 2023