When I first moved to the desert, in the autumn of 1990, I shared a little house down a long dirt road with my friend and fellow writer Ellen Steiber. Charles de Lint wrote a magical poem about it -- and I'm reminded of his words on this early desert morning, as coyotes prowl the E-West grounds, closer and closer. Singing....

In the Women's House
spirits are speaking.

The women
are tapping word-hoards
until stories
jump like cholla thorns
from mind to pen,
burrowing deep beneath
the skin.

In the Fairy House,
Coyote sleeps.

All around him, in the desert,
saguaro dream like green giants
while Coyote juggles
mischief and luck in his sleep.
All around him, in the desert,
the uncles and aunts
teach us to remember
that we are still animals....

To read the rest of the poem, go here.

The painting above comes from Old Coyote by Nancy Wood, illustrated by Max Grafe; and the drawing is from Medicine Road by Charles de Lint, illustrated by Charles Vess. The photograph above is of Charles de Lint and me in here in Tucson, way back in the early 1990s, snapped by Charles' lovely wife, MaryAnn Harris. It's just one of the many things I've come across while clearing out the E-West files. Memories, memories, memories.

In the photograph below, taken in the E-West kitchen (by Ellen Kushner) just yesterday, the Pendleton jacket and I are twenty years older....we're both a bit worn, faded, and frayed...but I'm still enraptured by the magic of the desert. Some things never change.