Cazadero Beauty
Gently touching a madrone,
marvel at the beauty of its skin.
Follow trails through meadow and wood
to find works of art at every turn,
flowers that mirror the beauty of this place,
living in harmony with nature.
Follow the line of tracks left by wheels
that lumbered through here decades ago
and find a yurt sheltered beneath
the grand canopy of its surroundings.
Sit within a natural amphitheater of stone
that has heard lines of poetry
and seen the smiles of children.
Lie in the forgiving moss
that carpets a stone outcropping.
Witness a massive oak
embracing a giant granite boulder,
a marriage for the ages.
Kneeling before mighty redwoods,
shed tears of joy at their majesty.
Look down into a valley of green
and know that a river rushes
through its depths to the sea.
Feel the warmth of candlelight,
the late evening sun filtered through the forest.
Experience all of this on the land,
Cazadero’s gift as envisioned by a true artist.
This poem is my second response to The Sunday Whirl – Wordle #518.
land – carpets – line – down – kneeling – tears – flowers
late – wheels – living – touching – candlelight
Cazadero Nature and Art Conservancy – owned by Margaret Fabrizio and known as The Land – is a 40 acre property in Sonoma County dedicated to the preservation and respectful honoring of natural habitat with non-invasive art works. Pictures of the art installations can be seen here, and the buildings here.
My other Cazadero poems can be found here.
rivrvlogr 
Beautiful poem “tour” … wish I were there!
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Thank you.
It’s wonderful. I spent two nights on The Land, one in the “Glass House” (maybe 8×8, with a pitched roof and made with window frames, and a night on a giant poster bed made from telephone poles (with mosquito netting). Margaret was 80 at the time, and she continued to make the 70-mile drive north from SF to spend weekends there tending to it well into her late 80s.
She’s now 90, and devotes her time to making kawandi – a form of quilting that she learned from the Siddi people (descendants of African slaves in India) during her trips to India. She is working on her 100th kawandi and she is becoming well known for her craft.
This video is long, but the first 3 – 4 minutes explain the Siddi process. She has adapted it (although not by sitting on the floor to quilt, as they do), because, as she says, it seems impossible to think the way they do, so instead she tries to highlight certain pieces of fabric in her quilts.
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Wonderful video! Thanks for all this detail.
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😀
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Lovely
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Thank you.
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It sounds like such a beauty place–thank you for sharing it in your words.
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🙂 Thank you, Merril.
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Peaceful. (K)
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It is.
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“a marriage for the ages”!!! Love the cadence of this poem.
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Thank you, Lynne. 🙂
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I grew up in Sonoma County, but left when I was still too young to appreciate what I’d be missing. Thank you for the wonder of this familiar glimpse renewed!
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Thank you for coming along!
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The quilts are beautiful. Sounds like a wonderful place.
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It definitely is.
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Ken, should you ever venture west, travel down the coast about 90 miles from Sonoma to the outskirts of Santa Cruz, and visit The Forest of Nisene Marks, in particular, the Land of Medicine Buddha.
And sounds like I have a trip to Cazadero in my not too distant future ~
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Thanks, I’ll remember that.
On the same SF trip that I went to Cazadero (in 2011), I met a friend for lunch in Santa Cruz. We watched surfers from the cliffs, then he took me to the Natural Bridges Monarch Trail. It was late October, so the butterflies had thinned out, but it was still impressive.
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