In Search of Georgia

Is there a place you have heard spoke

of again and again,
in stories and tellings
so much so,
it takes on a mythical quality
and you wonder what it holds
for you when you finally arrive
on its threshold???

When we drop down into Taos
from along the Rio Grande river
it is sort of as I imagined,
a town nestled in the breasts
of blackened shadowed mountains
with far reaching skies and churches,
pueblo this and pueblo that.
Georgia O'keefe's beloved home
and her artistic inspiration.
We are in search of her and
the magic!

I anticipate and fear
a voice might call out,
"welcome home
pack your bags, your moving"
(my friend, suggests there
might even be residents with signs

saying as much.. oh dear.)
There is neither.

Yet at the lodge of Mabel Dodge,
I sit, I write where many
famous guests gathered
D.H Lawrence and Gertrude
and Ansel,
the same soil under my feet.
I walk where the poets walked
and there is a hum
in my ankles.

And there is a labyrinth!
The ancient meditative maze!
I can barely contain my delight!

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol
of the circle and the spiral into
a meandering but purposeful path.
The Labyrinth represents a journey
to our own center and back again
out into the world.
It is a moving meditation of prayer.
It is a walk.
A metaphor for life’s journey.
A sacred space and place that
takes us out of our ego to
“That Which Is Within.”
A labyrinth has only one path.
It is unicursal.
The way in is the way out.

My first walk having been in Maui,
which I directly went and got a tattoo
to permanently
mark the experience!
It was that profound!!!

The intention is to ask a question...
walk in with it and walk out with
an answer or a better understanding
of what is being sought!

Mine is
"what shall I do,
where shall I go?"
(granted, maybe a little too lofty for
a Monday as a tourist
but IT IS Taos...)

The answer seems is so simple
too simple
"be the artist, poet you are
and know you are supported
by all those who have come
before you...just do what you do"
hmmm, okay anything else?
yes, build a labyrinth in your back yard
and that spiral staircase to nowhere,
the one you've been waiting to do,
it has greater relevance than
you imagined."
okay, hmmm?
.... thank you...i guess.

Yet... along the path to the lodge
we discover a note
tied to a branch with a
filament of iridescent ribbon...
a surprising treasure
that makes me feel instantly ten
it reads,
"you are an artist,
act like an artist...
show your work
and please return to Mabel
where magical things happen."
Steffani Zachry Holubec 7/09

I am stunned and look for others
but there is only this one,
one confirmation!
What a gift.
(Thank you, Steffani!)

Wondering, is this everyone's
question here?
Thus this answering note?
Or was this some kind of magic?

Past the twin steepled churches
and rushing Rio,
under the ceaseless New Mexico sky,
it is clear, I won't be moving here,
that I found more than Georgia,
maybe some of the intrigue...
and it looks like
there is a plan for a labyrinth
and spiral staircase to nowhere,
to be added to my backyard.

And more simply...
I need to keep doing and being
what I am doing and being!
And maybe tie a few notes
of my own to a tree or two!

(...oh and there won't be
any tattoo for this one...
i think I got it
deeper than skin this time.)

So... if you are an artist

act like one!

Pam PiperRain

photos by Ed Earley