Night Camp

September 14, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Caravan, Contentment, Creative writing, Desert, dVerse, Evening, Flash Fiction, Meditation, Micro-fiction, Moon, Night sky, Prosery 29 Comments

During the days there was glare and heat and baking sand and the parched tongue hoping for good water.

But at night, when they made camp, and the chill spooled at their feet and the camels chewed their cud and the humans picked the last crumbs of quick bread off their lap and the blankets were unrolled and small sounds of conversation carried on the breeze; there was ease, and sweetened tea, and the slowing beats of hearts ready for sleep.

And the sky, a dome of diamonds, flowing over them, the old and young and man and beast, as in their dreams they sleep with the moon and swim in the waters soon to ripple under the sun to the east.

Prosery prompt: “In their dreams they sleep with the moon.”–From Mary Oliver, “Death at Wind River”

For dVerse Prosery challenge

By Heart And Hand

May 26, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Allegory, Caring, CFFC, Current events, Desert, Life Lessons, Making do, Nothing is Impossible, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Practical solutions, Science, Water 14 Comments

Photo: Amitai Asif

There is water

For the thirsty

Even

In the desert,

Where heart and hand

Were put to work

With foresight of what

Must be done,

To hold

What would otherwise

Be lost

To shifting sands

And blazing sun.

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Manmade

The Gazelle

January 14, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Desert, Gazelle, Hiking, Just for fun, Mountain Gazelle, Nature, Poetry, Rhyme, Unexpected, Visitor, WordOfTheDay 11 Comments

Photo: Atara Katz

She has come to inspect

The tent

The snacks

The gear

The rest.

A gazelle

Wearing smiles

And she’ll stay

For a

While.

Entertainment

It seems

Can be found

On a whim.

For the Word of the Day Challenge: Gazelle

Desert Reflection

October 1, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: CFFC, Desert, hope, life, Photo Challenge, Poetry, Rectangle, Reflection, Reservoir, Water 8 Comments

Photo: Amitai Asif

In the middle of the desert

Where the dirt stretches far,

Hope ripples atop a small

Opaque reservoir,

That come night reflects

Heaven’s traveling star.

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Rectangles and Squares

Shadow Path

June 16, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Adversity, Desert, Endless, Flash Fiction, Longing, Micro-fiction, Mystery, Path, Refugee, Shadow, Sunday Stills, Sunlight 6 Comments

Photo: Ofir Asif

He took the path in shadow, and it seemed he was forever chasing sunlight as it progressed across the crater faster than his feet could carry him.

Bone-dry tired as he was.

It was better, he supposed, to be in the shadow. He was, he knew, perilously close to collapse.

Still the sun called to him. The shimmer played a trick upon his eyes and he craved the light even as he knew to fear it.

He’d been crossing deserts for what felt like a millennia of a parched destiny.

In linear time it had not been even quite a week …

Since he took the path of shadow.

In life. In hope of refuge. In this.

The sun slunk lower, further elongating the darkened tide of baked dirt, spreading to gobble up the fast receding patch of light.

He’d need to make camp soon.

One time had been plenty to be taken by surprise.

He knew.

Shadow will not wait long to turn into pitch dark.

For Terri’s Sunday Stills: Path

The Silent Dunes

May 4, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Calm, Creative writing, Desert, Dunes, Geology, Hiking, History, Meander, Meditation, Poetry, Weekend Writing Prompt 10 Comments

Photo: Ofir Asif

Walk about

The quiet earth

Where water used

To rush.

Meander in

The silent dunes

That nestle elder

Paths.

Wander into

Times long past

That witnessed nature’s

Wrath,

And let the calm

Like ancient balm

Seep through your

Whole

Into your soul,

To nourish you

With hush.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Meander in 47 words

Living Wild

March 3, 2019March 3, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Capra nubiana, Desert, Habitat, Israel, Negev, Nubian Ibex, Photo prompt, Photography, Poetry, Spiky, Sunday Stills, Wildlife 10 Comments

Photo: Osnat Halperin-Barlev

You have come to my

Backyard,

To my desert,

My home.

So why look

So surprised

To see me coming

Along?

Trivia:

Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) are desert-dwelling goat species that are found in mountainous areas of North Africa and the Middle East. The wild population is considered “vulnerable” and is estimated at only 1,200 individuals. Nubian ibexes stand around 65–75 cm (2.1–2.6 ft) tall at the shoulder and weigh around 50 kilograms (110 lb). They live in rough dry mountainous terrain and are a light tan color, with a white underbelly. Males also have a dark brown stripe down the back. Nubian ibexes have long thin horns which extend up and then backwards and down. In males these reach around about 1 meter (~ 1 yard) in length while in females they are much smaller and reach around 30 cm (~ 1 foot).

For Terri’s Sunday Still challenge: Wildlife

For Becky’s Spiky Squares challenge (even though this is not strictly a square …)

The Harbinger

January 29, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Desert, Dream, dVerse, Finding your way, Harbinger, Messenger, Path, Poem, Poetry, Writing Challenge, Writing prompt 38 Comments

Photo: Amitai Asif

In the slowest hour of the night

She came in robes

Of dreams

To weave the nearest future

Into light.

She swished along the desert

Roads that only

Deepest yearnings

Take

And whispered:

It shall be.

You’ll find the path

To follow when you

Wake.

For the d’Verse challenge: Harbinger

Treasure Hunters

December 30, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Desert, Fish Out Of Water, Flash Fiction, Just for fun, Micro-fiction, Photo Fiction, Photo prompt, Priorities, Sunday Photo Fiction, Treasure Hunting, Wild West 20 Comments

Photo Credit: Joy Pixley

It had been a long trek on an oven of a day in what had to be a replica of hell. I was parched half-way to mummification and about as lively as the end result, but Mark seemed as bouncy as a pixie in morning dew.

He checked the map. “Twenty more feet!”

Either he didn’t notice the forest of thorns (and its likely residents) or didn’t care. He was in his element. I definitely was not.

I’d joined THOR (Treasure Hunters Of Renown) a month prior, on the rebound from a breakup. The local chapter was small but Mark’s enthusiasm was contagious and the prospects were exciting. We compared topography maps with old mining records and discussed unsolved mysteries of lost gold from the bandit days of the Wild West. Hunting treasure sounded alluring. It made me feel brave. From the AC.

“I’m not going in there!” I croaked with a drywall tongue as my mind filled with images of scorpions and my ears strained for rattlers. I was sure I’d heard the cackle of ghosts.

If I made it home alive, the only treasures I wanted were a cool drink, my couch, and my remote.

For Sunday Photo Fiction