NEAR A DESERT MONASTERY

Silence reigns through all I see,
the air, my fingertips that
touch everything at once.
Earth and heaven weigh equally
as I melt into this land.

Walls of rock demand
I be present, small as I am,
to millions of years of making.
I think these cliffs will never
change, yet know time takes
its toll, as it will with me.

Pinyon pines draw green
on ledges of stone. Birds
catch thermals up carved
cliffs, bend toward beams of
fluctuating light.

I walk on water-washed
gravel near the Rio Grande,
see rattlers and lizards scurry,
hear furtive calls of birds,
pass a meditating monk
without a word.

Pamela Hammond is the author of two chapbooks, Encounters (2011) and Clearing (2012), published by Red Berry Editions, and her poems have appeared in vatious literary journals.