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Cuña Pirú
I’m still thinking about the night in Cuña Pirú– the place namedfor a streamnamed for a thin woman.You brought me to the Salto Encantado,waterfall of ill-fated lovers,and said,“If you drink the water, you will find your one.”Already, it was playingwith flame. We ate auberginesin a deserted lodgeand let silence hold us thickand warmand then you…
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Paradox Valley
“At the northeast corner of this valley, the river suddenly turns from east to north, flows in this course a few miles between immense walls of sandstone, then turns again to the eastward, and holds this course to the mouth of the San Miguel, crossing on its way two sharp ridges and a transverse valley.…
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Trinity
There is a dream I’ve had twice in my life, which has never left me. I was 11 or 12 when it first appeared, and maybe close to 20 when I had it again. It is as clear in my mind as it was those years ago. I’m standing in the smoking ashes of a…
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North London drift
The other morning I woke early. The summer sun was piercing through the blinds and wouldn’t be blocked by an eye pillow. It was going to be a hot, still day. The kind good for nothing much, and with not much to do I decided on a meander. After dressing and stepping out into the…
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Quaker Street
You’re here in my mind. I guess that’s the way it was going to be. Funny how often I find myself on Quaker Street. It’s a throwaway street that runs parallel to the railway line at Shoreditch High Street, and if you come out of the station and under the bridge, you pass all the…
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Getting back on
I can’t forget when I first got thrown. I was just a little girl, maybe 6 or 7, taking the pony, a chestnut called Charlie, for a turn around the arena. The arena was a big, fenced-in rectangle on the south side of our adobe house with a view of the mountains. The scrub, cactus…
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Broken heart
I was always going to have to do this – to process and vent. To find my way through with words, and here it goes. A warning, reader, it will be fresh and raw and medical. It will be long and it will be self-indulgent. An info dump typed through fat, hot tears. It will…
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The wonder
Of course I would. Always try to capture with words the stanzas of aubergine sky between the stars, a fiery dawn, hoar frost rising thick on blades of grass. But it’s your words that make my blood flow soft and steady through these veins, even on cold mornings climbing steep hills to look north across…