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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE DESERT LAND, by MARGARET DELANEY
First Line: Good god, can it be you made this place
Last Line: Alone in the desert at night!
Subject(s): Deserts; Desolation; Food & Eating; Hunger; Solitude; South Dakota; Loneliness
First Line: Good god, can it be you made this place
Last Line: Alone in the desert at night!
Subject(s): Deserts; Desolation; Food & Eating; Hunger; Solitude; South Dakota; Loneliness
Good God, can it be you made this place,
This desolate desert land,
This dreary waste where even the air
Is filled with the shifting sand?
And far away as the eye can reach
Only the sage brush grows,
Gnarled and twisted and hideous,
While the eternal west wind blows.
Oh, God, what a place! Yet off to the north
Stand the mountains clouded with snow.
Majestic and awful and towering,
Guarding the desert below.
Dear God, can it be you made these days,
Dreary and lone and gray
Where weary, monotonous, evermore,
Day drags by after day.
Where souls can hunger forevermore,
On fire in a restless quest
For some intangible wisp of a dream
That floats in the heart of the West.
Yet the dreary days in the desert land
Are touched with one magic light—
The glorious dreams that fire the soul
Alone in the desert at night!
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