The Lady of Castell March (1898)

More than one-fifth of the earth’s land surface is currently desert terrain. Known for its harsh living conditions, living creatures that thrive in the desert have learned to adapt to its uncertain environment: some burrow underground by day, coming out only at night, while others stay near watering holes. Besides extreme temperature fluctuations, humans may encounter dangerous wildlife, scarce, prickly water sources, and suffer from hallucinations, testing the boundaries of one’s sanity. Rivers Running in Desert Places is a collection of epic poems about the search for life-sustaining sources of refreshing in the often brutal dry-spells of our lives. Mimicking the ebb and flow of a river, the author uses a mixture of itinerant and gushing verse, and vivid imagery, to highlight universal themes of love, self-hatred, regret, introspection, triumphant victory, and self-realization. The collection celebrates what it is to recall the mantra where there is water, there is life.