Dusty Roads
by
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Excerpt from "Cecilia":
She looked at her baby asleep on the floor,
Then quietly left, closing the door;
Slowly she walked to the top of the hill,
Feeling the sun, air calm and still ...
This poem is of my grandmother. In the early 1900's, she and my grandfather heard of the "Homestead Act" and left Kansas to follow their dream. They went to Wyoming to begin a new life. As often happens, a life is spent trying to fulfill a dream; then, sadly enough, the person dies and the hope they were chasing dies with them.
When I go to the prairie where my grandparents had their homestead, I listen to the Wyoming breeze rustling through dry grass and sagebrush. I feel the sun on my back and look and try to understand what molded these carvers of the West. What gave them endurance to survive the long, bitter winters, hot, dry summers, the isolation and unrelenting loneliness, and even worse, bury their children. They had little control over their lives for the land and weather held them hostage.
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About the Book
My father taught me a love of nature and its creatures, for which I am deeply grateful. I am at peace when riding down a country road, seeing the antelope on the prairie, the eagle floating smoothly above me, hearing the unwritten notes of the meadowlark's song, or catching sunlight glinting off a blackbird's feathers.
To describe my writing, would be life, for each poem and story is a tapestry of life woven from the threads of the person or persons who lived it.
Excerpt from "Queen of the Night" (The legend of Dell Burke):
Moon shadows crept along the wall,
Black and uneven, short and tall;
The candle had burned; its light was gone,
But another light shone - the light of dawn...
May one of my poems or story gratify your soul and carry you on wondrous wings down your own dusty road ... for our minds are magical. With a word, a smell, or sight, we are flown back on wings of lightning, reliving memories long lost; momentarily suspended in another time and place.
About the Author
Evelyn Rogina Doussard was born in Montana and went to school in Lusk, Wyoming and Manila, Utah. She has written headline articles for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, and for many years wrote a weekly column for the Green River Star in Wyoming. Ms. Doussard retired after thirty-one years with the federal government, retiring as a contracting officer. Seven of these years were spent at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a marshland outside of Brigham City, Utah. She is a graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature. Ms. Doussard resides with her husband in Salt Lake City and enjoys gardening, hiking, bicycling, and traveling.
"During my life, I have traveled many roads. These roads of memories are roots to my past, distinct particles of my being, identifying who I was and who I am now. Sometimes painful, still, I embrace the past."