The name is Nathan Cowlishaw (aka Nathan Arizona), Talking Tree, or Turquoise UFO. These writings belong to a desert rat — a wanderer with sand in his shoes and stories baked into his skin. I am not Indigenous. I don’t claim the land, the myths, or the wisdom of those who came before. I’m simply someone who fell in love with the vast, wild, unglamorous deserts of the American Southwest and never quite found my way back.
Most of my life has unfolded along backroads, lonely highways, small towns, canyon shadows, and places where the night sky feels close enough to touch. The desert has a way of stripping things down to what’s essential — faith, memory, identity, longing, humor, queerness, grief, wonder — and this Journal grew out of that process. These writings are part field-notes, part confession, part love-letter to the quiet miles in between.
I write because silence has a voice.
I photograph because the land deserves witnesses.
I wander because sometimes the only way to understand yourself is to follow the road until the noise falls away.
I don’t pretend to be more important than the landscape. If anything, I’m just another temporary creature passing through. But the desert has shaped me — and this space exists so the stories, poems, and reflections that came from that shaping have somewhere to live.
If you want to reach me, I’m still around — somewhere between the highways, the shadows, and the open sky. You can also contact me at: cowlishaw AT gmail.com.
Original legacy text from this page:
These writings are about a Desert Rat, a hermit dreamer of sorts… He is not indigenous. Includes his thoughts and prose about the desert and the beauty of the land. If you wish to contact me, my email is Cowlishaw AT Gmail.com. You can also find me on Myspace.