The Edinburgh Geologist
Issue no 40

Poet's Corner

Two poems by Melisande Luna

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The following two poems were sent to me by Melisande Luna, an  undergraduate at California State Univeristy, Bakersfield.  The field area enjoyed by CSU typically comprises the San Andreas Fault Zone, the Sierra Nevada batholith and the horst and graben tensional, and low-angle displacement faults in the Mojave Desert, i.e. Death Valley.

Melisande started school 'a bit later in life', and has been studying the geo-sciences for about seven years. Following a nervous breakdown some time between learning stereonets and mapping the nuances of the Zabriske Fault Margin, Melisande began spontaneously writing poetry in what psychologists call 'The Clang Effect', a component of bipolar disorder.  She has been writing poetry as a serious effort for just under two years and has become moderately successful with publishers. She is currently working with WebDelSol.com as a forum editor and serves as a director on the InterBoard Poetry Competition sponsored by Web Del Sol.

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Tumbleweed There are no tumble-  weeds in my desert to sponge through  bighorn fences, bounce across blacktop,  in smack dab boulder dashes. Just wind to blow the sand around, mined from pitted-  faces of volcanoes. Melisande Luna 2002

 
 

To A Fault On the lam, off the road  thirty-five miles south of Hell among stony outcrops  in the company of hawks The echo of a broken record  óbegs questions to please-God-stop  I can't love anything but these thirsty mazes  where faces lie exposed whispering history over playas  spinning Badwater legends with windy sighs I stroll across the Devil's bed  left slept-in and rumpled, I'm -h o p p i n g over rills and washes  where jasper clasts gather My boot-heels snap mesquite  sticks like hollow bones popping Armed with lodestone and lead  I walk the fault óringing my rock hammer  off bedrock knobs I chase the ancient  thorough time. Hunting orogeny, my love  Obsession: a question for the mountain Melisande Luna 2002

 

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