Harvest Time: A Collection of Permie Poetry
Written by Anya Wallin and Sophia Malonson

Arcology
“Man tries to impose himself on his surroundings” – Soleri

Urban Lab in the Desert
Cozy Cactus Corners
Poured concrete casted into the Earth,
Solidifying Paolo Soleri’s roaring visions

Carefully crafted, drafted with foresight.
Crisp Cold Cement Creation
Geometric human habitat
Frantic with big dreams to release into the surrounding world.

This city is sculpted by the Earth
Like a potter’s hand,
Gently lifting up more and more structures
Against the desert landscape.

Now mostly empty, but why?
Blank paper Lines scattered
On a rare grey, cold, wet day.
No sunlight to energize today’s community.

Stairs Stairs stairs
Mountains oozing through Skylight
Abandoned Visions Thoughts Drifting
Over olive trees and rosemary bushes

Lush parks
foggy arches
Tunnels, channels and half domes
amphitheaters warp sound.


Borderlands Restorations Institute
Land of El Jefe, The elusive jaguar
wandering across mountain corridors
Wild cats and wild winds
Exotic birds and butterflies

Harvesting the waters in rocky pools
Re-seeding native grasses
Building regenerative community

Weaving web of support
Protectors of sky islands
Restoring sweet nectar

Slow down, Spread out, Sink in


Francesca’s Queendom
Toasty greenhouses nurture baby plantings
from seed, from cutting
Agaves line the perimeter of warmth
In the OG

Queen of the greenhouse
baby sprouts boogy for their mastress
Blow her kisses as she passes
Little lovelies ready to spread her passion throughout the desert


Windsong
Mountains span far
Mountains reach high                                                  
Mountains know secrets

Mountains hug the horizon,
Dry grassland of potential
Covered with rocks, ouch
that was a cactus.

Spot Mexico through a peak hole
lit up in twinkling cascades of electricity

Protected by wolf
Blessed by baby lambs, born in a tumble and twist
Grazing on Alfalfa stacks
behind solar powered shocks
Chickens stir things up

Labrinth smiling in the sun
Head back, hair blowing with the whipping wind.

Big doors many walls
Spanish Finish, Antique lining.
Virginia’s artifacts of beauty, wisdom and culture
Line the long hallway
Wrapped around the square courtyard in grace and comfort

Dreaming up the possibilities of lushness,
Of layers,
All the ways harmony is found here.

Safe place for the children
The leaders of tomorrow.
Tucked into hilly blankets

Wind Sings of inclusion
Wind sings of hope


Deep Dirt
Strong Dirty Power
Built from ground up
Crone is in Charge
Queen of the salvage yard

Flows like water. Soars like eagle.
through windy veins of her land
Deep roots oak medicine
Grandmas blooming in the apple blossoms

Quails and ducks run amuck
Snakes will scare the poop out of you
Grasses and Bees Feeling Free

Treasured trash
Satellite overhead, repurposed roof
shooting sound like a curling wave

Take time and listen deeply
To the whispers that reveal themselves in the wind,
the sunshine, the water
movement
In patterns, patterns, traveling across the land

Be exact, acupuncturist
Intimately know this body we reside on
The Earth body tells you what needs correcting
Slow medicine

Being in relationship with these rhythms,
cycles, orbits, tap roots
Some Unseen and some so obvious you’d laugh

Invigorating visit,
giving and receiving hope
Inspiration rising in intergenerational togetherness
Sharing in circles
Keeps us going, strong and resilient.

Sharp rocks get soft
When tumbled by strong waters
Wise woman way

Seed Saving
Borderlands biodiverse resilience
Library of living genetics
The importance of protection
What allows life to thrive
This diversity of information
Seed pellets spread across the land like
dew drops across the neck of grass blades


Ceremony
Call to Action
Fire
The language of dance
Thundering drum beats encircle the courtyard
Pounding truth

Feathers reach towards sky space
Seeds shimmy towards earth core

Wise Elder Stands Strong
In Rhythm He Chants
Lifts us into essential questions
Fierce children move in unison, answering
Earth Warriors

New Moon guides us to Surrender to the work
Call is loud and clear
Cedar smoke sends word to the ancestors

Impossible not to feel this
Deepening emotions, connection, prayer, dedication
Call to action, call to dance.

Community built upon the sturdy foundation of
Knowing self, understanding the Way of others
Interrelate, interlock, interweave stories
Humbled.

Gary’s place
Watching spirit mountain
Slowly slowly
Rugs Cushions Books
Sharing poems of political ecology
Buried Bear Medicine
Trees know better
Infused with creative relationship
Grazing grasshoppers grab grub
Hot peppers
World’s finest grows here

Canelo
Soft Hardy Abundance
Warm Solid Shelters
Beautifully etched

Round
Clay and Straw
Mother Earth Style

Muddy Arms
Keep her babies warm
Milk flowing through

Nogales
A Community with a wall through it
stark
Like a scar gashed into the earth between a family of trees
imposing
Rising higher and higher, with propositions to strengthen the divide
blinders
What if we couldn’t see each other at all?
Cut
No space for looking, listening, realizing that eyes tell
the story of our oneness
cold
Standing on a hill, looking down
We are witnessing,
Open.
We are visiting.
Mercado full of smiles, music bumping
Spicy smells wafting
Local money
build the people up,
not the wall.


On Processes
​Passion and emotion, analyzing these tasks
and the most suitable
way to go forward.
Within the chaos, balance with stillness.
Diverging from agreement
In expansion there is
pain, frustration, liberation and resolve.
Refinement
Turns to drafts
Turn the pages and pages stuck upon walls
Our process is that of a spiral, widening circles
Reaching new insights around the ever curving edge.