On terra damnata,
the rind of a moon over
history’s purgatorial waste,
she traces the scarred earth,
the braille of ocotillo,
lizards, whinstone, curvature
of monoclines, a geologist
of cemeteries, cairns,
listening for hollow bells
marking Cain’s passage
towards nuclear holocaust
with soulless eyes.
Search and see if this does not ring of someone who’s lately been immersed in Dante and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. It’s obvious Dante continues to influence the best of our contemporary writers, especially McCarthy, who critics have called America’s greatest contemporary novelist in a class with Hawthorne, Melville and Faulkner.
Image credit: Photography by Rosalind Solomon for Carrie's Sunday Muse; and Kim's dVerse Quadrille (exactly 44 words) prompt, "bells."
Dreams from a Pilgrimage 
Dear Dora,
You are the Hawthorne to my Dr. Seuss. Each poignant authors but not nearly in the same ‘class’. Bravo!
❤ Susan
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I’m so glad you didn’t say I was a Jeremiah, Susan, although I do tend write like a prophet of doom. But we can all use a Dr. Seuss to lighten the days, praise God! 😘
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We each embrace our own purpose, don’t we.
Blessings all!
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Dark and interesting.
Thank Dora, for dropping by my blog.
Much ❤love
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Smack dab in the middle of the end times. Great writing to that image and the prompt word, Dora.
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This makes me smile. Thanks.
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Oooh! Oooh! Lots of great stuff in that. No idea how you can read both Dante and Blood Meridian at the same time, LOL!
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Excellent poem. Evoking so many feelings.
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My kind of quadrille, Dora, dark and haunting. I love the phrases ‘the rind of a moon’ and ‘a geologist of cemeteries, cairns’. There is such a powerful atmosphere of doom.
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Dora this travels inexorably from word to word, through all the layers to that blind ending! Re-read several times for sheer enjoyment especially
“the rind of a moon over
history’s purgatorial waste”
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That’s always hanging over us, more so now than even eight months ago. I like “a geologist of cemeteries, cairns…”
I had a really hard time with that latest Cormac McCarthy novel.
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This gave me chills in a wonderful way Dora! Always so glad to see you at the Muse!
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Ay yi yi, girl. That is one gloomy scene. I wanted to write for Muse this past weekend but just had nothing. I was waiting for you to drive up and say, “Get in, loser, we’re going poetry-ing!”
–Shay
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Heh. I need to stay away from the news which seems to be taking over my Muse lately with gloom and doom. But it’s like looking in the abyss, it’s hard to look away. So I’m waiting for you to go poetry-ing and take me to another world and a whole ‘nother level of genius. So get going!
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So much to love about this poem.. the dark references from Dante’s journeys to today’s threat of a nuclear wasteland.
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Your poetry makes me want to explore meanings of words, makes me want to be a better writer … I thank you for that. This is an amazing poem.
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Too generous, Helen, thank you.
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I think I need to read Dante; I see Hillsdale college has a free online course on Dante
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I didn’t know that – wonderful! Dante sounds like a proto-Protestant at times, at odds with the medieval Catholic church (he has more venal Popes and clerics in the Inferno than you can shake a stick at!), more aligned with Augustine in his theology than not including in the matter of election.
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I need to read him; even critically but also just to situate things in that time period
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Dark, spot on writing for the times we are living in. Powerful piece!
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Darker than dark, Dora, and making me berate myself for giving up on reading Dante when I should have persevered. Very erudite writing as always.
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