…Through Desert or the Wilderness/…or as One/The Camel’s trait—attained—/How powerful the Stimulus/Of an Hermetic mind—
-Strong Draughts, Poem 711
She writes of seeking water in waterless times, of reading as a reservoir, of desert treks between wells of inspiration, of riding miles between draughts, of reaching at last for your oasis, your books, with a withered hump and goat skins dry, closed to all things but drink. KhairAllah and Rabih and the rest never felt so far gone between sips. It wasn’t reading they feared lacking, but sugar in their tea- another stimulus to a one track mind.