JULY SAGEBRUSH STEPPE, evening light (800 m., VII.7.2010) [ click photo for next . . . ]

When I'm down at my Office in Eagle Valley, a drop
of one or two vertical kilometers from where I might be
doing fieldwork in the High Wallowas, I like to bike
up to this spot to get away from things, and for
evening meditation. Even in the midst of intense
summer heat and drought, the Sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata) has something nearly motionless, timeless
about it. I frequently bring a few branches back down with
me to burn as incense. We get the generic name from Artemis,
the Greek virgin goddess of wild nature and the hunt.
I like that. Artemis. In the era of always-on networks,
we can easily have too much of culture. Sitting in
the evening light here, one forgets all about it.

On the road in the American Northwest.

ALL RELIGIONS ARE TRUE / ALL
RELIGIONS ARE FALSE

All religions are true insofar as they attempt to attune
and align the spiritual being of humankind with something
greater then itself, with something divine; And all religions
are false, insofar as the very thing they attempt to do, they
make to varying degrees impossible. Clearly, we need to
transcend this contradiction with something totally new.



LIFE IS ROUND

Life is a web, not a pyramid. In the web-like community
of harmony, of fitting together, large fierce predators
are the exception and not the rule. When the pyramid
view of life, however, comes to dominate, we may find
ourselves falling prey to the notion, that the way of the
predator--of killing, of force, of plunder--is the primary
or signature relationship of life.



TREE OF LIFE

(i) One of the ugliest and most brutal images of all time
is that of the Crucifixion, essentially, of nailing suffering
to the tree of life. This suffering must be taken down;

(ii) "The way to the Lord is only through me." Be simple.
Whoever says this, is not a savior, but a tyrant;

(ii) The cross of Christianity is the sign of violent subjugation,
of the attempted conquest and colonization of spiritual life.
iHSV: IN HOC SIGNO VENCES. In this sign they conquer;
true, and in this sign, they necessarily and most certainly
shall self-destruct.

FIREWEED POEMS please preview
[opens in new window]

Follow @cliffcrego

All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 2012 picture-poems.com
(created: VII.24.2012)