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Poetic Micro Essays

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.



Fossil – Pool – Bygone

A fossil reveals
a life-form that thrived
in a bygone time.

In the Sacramento mountains,
at an elevation of 9000 feet,
high above the Tularosa Basin,
there are trace fossils
of ancient sea plants
and nautilus shells.

Ninety-million years ago,
the Cretaceous Inland Sea
flowed through the western
center of our continent.

Some of what remains intact
of that outsized water mass
lies subterranean, a silent
pool beneath the gypsum
of White Sands Missile Range.

These mountains are relatively
new peaks, with upraised
and trace fossils revealing
the life that thrived here
when the ancient waterline
was not yet upheaved
violently into the sky.



Photo credit: Sacramento Ranger District Interpretive Sign. Photo by Eve West Bessier

Photo credit: Seaways Map, stock photo


Disclaimer:
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Southwest Word Fiesta™ or its steering committee.

Eve West Bessier

Eve is a poet laureate emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico; and of Davis and Yolo County, California. She served on the steering committee for the Southwest Word Fiesta, and has been a festival presenter. Eve is a retired social scientist, educator, and voice coach. She is a published author, jazz vocalist, photographer and nature enthusiast currently living in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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Mimbres Press of Western New Mexico University is a traditional academic press that welcomes agented and unagented submissions in the following genres: literary fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, memoir, poetry, children’s books, historical fiction, and academic books. We are particularly interested in academic work and commercial work with a strong social message, including but not limited to works of history, reportage, biography, anthropology, culture, human rights, and the natural world. We will also consider selective works of national and global significance.