)
Gallery owner Ans Zoutenbier creates mirrors, boxes, ornaments,
lamp shades, and other unique objects from tin. Entering her gallery
makes one feel like a child in a toystore; there's so much fun
stuff to look at! Her husband Ton Haak is a writer and poet and
also a passionate hiker; he gets many of his inspirations when
roaming through the fantastic
landscape near Abiquiu.
Ans and Ton left the Netherlands in 1994 and found their new home
here
in northern New Mexico.
Click on the images to get a better view, and enjoy Ton's poem!
YOUR LAND IS MY LAND
)
The sign says,
This is federal land,
National Forest, owned
By the people, thus the
True Land Of The Free.
Yet this land is MY land, if
Only because, 360 days
Out of each year, here,
On the sliding slopes and
Metaphysical mesas, beneath
The castle cliffs and deep in the
Comforting canyons, I am as
Lone as the proverbial
Ranger, as lonesome as the
Dove.
)
This land is my land of
Opportunity – these
Multicolored layers older than
Methuselah, sacred
Sanctuaries for the
Broken bones of the
Dinosaurs’ granddad. This,
My frequent hiking ground, is
Triassic Park, my personal
Connection with prehistory,
My private link with my own
Future. My beacon is the old
Windmill – at the base of the
Vertical cliff I listen to the
Creaking of its blades,
)
A sound so tranquilizing
That the world beyond my view
Ceases to exist. The peaks in the
Distance will, until eternity,
Protect the harmony of the
Chama River valley, the
Piedra Lumbre’s magic
Stone, my path back home.
The woolen clouds hang around merely
To build up picturesqueness to
Outlandish maxims, to please
My eye, my eye alone. While my dogs,
Jumping high over sage and
Cholla, have time just for
Play,
)
I, master of the desert, am
Loudly singing the praise of
Being land–rich beyond means, the
Might of being, the joy of being
Solitaire. And nothingness
Becomes everything, and I am
Everything too.
Ton Haak, Abiquiú, 2001
Please visit the Tin Moon Gallery website