8 Comments

I've always wondered how these form since there aren't any clouds like with regular cyclonic action. Like most people who live or travel a lot out west I've been hit many times with the small dust devils, but do not want to be hit with one this size!

Expand full comment

Me neither. The one I saw would've done major damage to someone's house. A few years ago, we had a major winter windstorm, lots of rain, etc. Took out several fences, of course, but also damaged the corner of one of our favorite restaurant buildings. Seventy-mile-an-hour winds? That's a Cat 1 hurricane.

Expand full comment

In my boating life I've been in 70mph winds. No fun! And at the marina one time had 90mph gusts! These are straight line winds.

And when living aboard in the Bahamas i had to anchor in Nassau to pick up friends that flew in to cruise with me. Nassau is a straight through harbor and deep. Due to expected high winds I had to have two anchors out on the bow with 200 ft of rd because of the 20ft water depth, and one off the stern with 200 ft to keep from swinging. The wind against the tide created whats called a rage on the bar. A 100 ft inerisland freighter tried to get in, capsized, and four people drowned. You would think the locals would know better. Sometimes now as a weak old man I can't believe the life I used to live!

Expand full comment

Beautiful poem - thank you so much for the link to the video - absolutely incredible (not to mention both beautiful and terrifying)!

Expand full comment

Amazing! Mother Nature getting all worked up. It's both beautiful and scary! Your poem follows the path, perfectly, with such detail...I could feel the grit in my eyes, the sand in my hair. Beautiful!

Expand full comment

Thank you, Sharon. Glad you like the poem. Hope you'll explore more in the Archives.

Expand full comment

I loved Chimera and the mystery of what the chimera was. I'm ready to jump a train to anywhere myself. Jeff's on vacation and we're wondering what to do with the extra days after returning from a road trip. It's like we're lost or totally exhausted with the day-to-day.

As for the rhyming scheme, I sometimes don't know I'm doing it. In poetry class, we talked about different ways to put rhymes in our verse, yet to be subtle about it. There's no name for it ... thank god. That's one part of literature classes where I wasn't listening nor did I care. The word "enjumbment," for example, pertains to how the last word in the sentences through the poem hold the meaning behind the poem. Yeah right! Whatever! What bright biscuit came up with that word anyway. ENJUMBMENT? Try saying it a few times. It sounds horrible.

Expand full comment

Wow! If I were looking for a "sign", this would be it! It must have given you chills even at a distance. That film clip you added was amazing. Your erratic rhyming is so musical! I read it aloud several times. Does this rhyming pattern have a name? I wrote a 50-word with the same kind of rhyming. You might like it. https://sharronbassano.substack.com/p/chimera?

Expand full comment