‘DESERT BIRDS’ by 3RD CULTURE (2016)

‘DESERT BIRDS’ by 3RD CULTURE (2016) Collection: Mt. Esja

‘Desert Son’ (Poem)

I was once a desert son,
surrounded on
all sides.
I lived in a square
with barbed wire edges
and bronze gates
and smoking guards
and machine gun turrets.
The sun was always hot
and the air was
always dry
but when it rained, well,
you should have been there,
you should have seen it.
I was once a desert son,
under palm trees and wind
song,
in a city
which rose from old sands
and shone out long
and radiated faith;
a shining metal oasis
for the lost and depraved.
And hours away the red sea
lapped older still
against the line.
I was once a desert son,
armour plated and homespun,
with eyes for speed and
I was afraid
of guns
and masked intruders
and healers
and those who wished harm.
I was once a desert son,
but those days are gone.

‘Camel Trail’ (Photography #89)

‘Quad 2’ (Photography #87)

‘Quad’ (Photography #82)

“The Kingdom I Remember” (Excerpt)

(Excerpt from “The Kingdom I Remember” (TBC 2016))

“No man can live this life unchanged. He will carry, however faint, the imprint of the desert, the brands which mark the nomad; and he will forever have within him the yearning to return, weak or insistent in his nature. For this cruel land can cast a spell which no temperature clime can match.”

                                                – Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is plagued by an array of uncomfortable dichotomies. On the one hand, visitors are privy to a region of staggering physical beauty. The sloping, fertile mountains of the Asir Plateau. The barren emptiness of the Rub al’ Khali desert. The dry heat at the Gulf of Aqaba’s lapping shores. It is impossible to leave this stretch of the Middle East without having first acknowledged the splendour of its sights and the spirit of its people. This is especially true, considering the land’s infertility, and the century old struggle of its inhabitants’ survival.