Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness

by Edward Abbey

The snow glitters between us, acres of diamonds almost painful to look at.

Good visual

an eddy of wind which passes and fades like a sigh,

Remember. Powerful.

A wisp of bluish smoke goes up and the wood, arid as the rock from which it came, blossoms out in fire.

More beautiful imagery

I am shut off from the natural world and sealed up, encapsulated, in a box of artificial light and tyrannical noise.

the furious gnashing of pistons whimpers to a halt.

I’m a humanist; I’d rather kill a man than a snake.

We are obliged, therefore, to spread the news, painful and bitter though it may be for some to hear, that all living things on earth are kindred.

Amen

For myself I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. (Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!)