Page Lambert: All Things Literary & All Things Natural

All Things Literary & All Things Natural is on summer hiatus during August and September. I hope these days, for you, are filled with the beauty of the literary and natural landscape, time with loved ones, and immersion in the creative landscape of your inner dreams.  Page

"Tell me a story," I ask, curled beneath a quilt on this cool summer day, and the poet opens her mouth and speaks to me of startled birds, and lavender seas, and of the thin brown legs of the becak driver who pedals her through the streets of Java on a wheeled cart he does not own. How much money do you make, she asks, and Aatif answers. ...                           oh not enough, not enough he says smiling                           most goes to the mullah who owns the cart  She tells me, this poet, that when she and her family decide to buy Aatif his own becak...                how his tiny toothless mother        ...

My suitcase is unpacked from Peru and repacked for Wyoming. The new lilac bushes are deep-watered; the flower box planted, and the rock garden’s perennials weeded and refreshed with new soil. My mare’s feed is sacked up and my corral group friends will check on her each morning while I’m gone. John is holding down camp, the granddaughters are healthy, and the heartbeat of Sarah’s unborn baby girl is gurgling along in a happy rhythm. These details form the connective tissue between yesterday and tomorrow. Life, for all of us, transitions one detail at a time, one heartfelt emotion after another. Literature, too, can transition us from one moment to the next, the stories we read threading their way through the patterns of our lives. Before I left for Peru, I started reading Nancy Pfeiffer’s memoir, Riding into the Heart of Patagonia , about a solo journey through the remote Aysen region of Chile. Nancy, an instructor for the nonprofit National Outdoor Leadership School (NOL...