‘A Red Rose Blooming in the East’
Desert Dawn by Robert E. Howard
© 2018 James LaFond
JAN/1/18
Desert Dawn is a direct, two-verse poem of but 14 lines, which this writer takes as a possible overture to an oriental adventure, written by Robert E. Howard to set his own mode for writing a desert yarn.
The first four lines invite an awakening to an alien setting, using nautical metaphor:
“Dim seas of sand swim slowly into sight,
As if from out the silence swiftly born;
Faint foremost herald of the coming morn,
Red tentacles reach out into the night…”
In writing Conan, Xavier Gordon and other characters, Howard veered from desert to nautical settings, and since I myself have had to alter a writing mood to tackle a new setting, it occurs that perhaps Howard used some of his poetry to set his own mind to the writer’s task of revealing a fresh, elemental stage for his ever-strident characters to tread under foot. An unpublished overture to one’s narrative avatar is a potent method to setting a storied tone in short order. Perhaps Desert Dawn was such an exercise in remote viewing.
sons of aryas
time & cosmos
song of the secret gardener
the combat space
uncle satan
logic of force
the greatest lie ever sold
z-pill forever
taboo you
honor among men
within leviathan’s craw
broken dance
solo boxing
winter of a fighting life
fiction anthology one
barbarism versus civilization
book of nightmares
triumph
thriving in bad places
the greatest boxer
wife—
the gods of boxing
cracker-boy
advent america
the fighting edge
blue eyed daughter of zeus
menthol rampage
your trojan whorse
on the overton railroad
when you're food
orphan nation
into leviathan’s maw
masculine axis
hate
beasts of aryas
the year the world took the z-pill
fate
night city
dark, distant futures
logic of steel
son of a lesser god
predation
the first boxers
all-power-fighting
the lesser angels of our nature
america the brutal
the sunset saga complete
by the wine dark sea
ranger?
sorcerer!
let the world fend for itself
songs of aryas
fanatic
on combat
under the god of things