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Ojos Negros
(a valley near Ensenada)
El aspecto de la California es, generalmente hablando, desagradable y hórrido, y... es hasta los 32 grados muy árida y estéril. En este último paralelo muda el aspecto de la naturaleza, y se ven campiñas con abundantes aguas y más adornadas de vegetales.--Francisco Xavier Clavijero, 1789.The aspect of California is, generally speaking, disagreeable and horrid, and... it is, up to 32 degrees north, very arid and sterile. In this parallel the aspect of nature changes, and one sees countryside with abundant water and more adorned with vegetation.
Titans have struggled here andstill sleep
un - easy
ripping the earthquake
finger
Baja
California
from
its bleeding
continental
hand
mountain shoulders rumbling
against each other
ranges
opening the deserts
of hell to the
salt sea
and all
its weird
twisted
boojum plants . . . .
Until these uplifted valleys
claim California oak trees,
grassy hills, ancient Indian
petroglyphs
rock art
and
white & black sage
sacred
herb
who begins to whisper
springtime streams
where this peninsula
still clings
to its
mainland roots, and
summer drought
with
winter rains
shall create a cattle pasture
with all
its dusty promise
of the distant, lingering north .
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