1996 Road Movie Taking off

1996  Road Movie  Taking off 

1. 

this luxuriant dripping, green-- is!

and sinks me into reverie 

of the Yellow Breeches Creek, 

the elementary stories, 

of Indians and Hiawatha, washing 

in the stream, coming out with 

yellow britches, 

the waterfalls, and a memory 

of a smell, the crayfish, we caught 

with sock protected hands, 

in crevices of rocks, we stuck our hands 

into, my head is awake

2.

to these first loves, 

nostalgia slows and but, maybe another day

I'm off!

I shift in my seat, still remembering the 

feet dangling, fishing 

ordering, the ideas set 

beside me, to become 

agon, to fight

at limits of strength 

at heights, sought!

the hills steepen

and back down through West Virginia, 

that old feeling  of back water, 

steep slate gothic roof 

hill to mountain, old red and gray, 

brick and granite, 

3. 

spaces and colors

a line weaving through

kept in order, they proceed, 

in spiraling fashion, style 

in cycle, dreaming winter

thoughts, attaining spring

and summer height of mind

falling

into autumn,

to depth

of winter

spiraling form, 

4. 

The West, incredibly--

as I cross that invisible state line, crystalline shapes 

and cotton candy clouds reflecting earth, red 

planted in green, turning to prairie 

grass deepening into sage, thunderheads 

beyond covering  mountains in distance 

anvil like cardboard cloud, 

pinned to flat lonely space, v-aroom, the Greyhound 

bus to Amarillo, passes in black smoke 

and I'm left, 

out there, as a Santa Fe train, a B-line 

into the distance, my spirit 

here enlarged,

5.

wind that blows through it all 

feeling the eternal 

slowness 

of a turning center, 

the time-lapsed clouds 

shadows fleet

over land, black and white 

design of a vase

swoosh--

and voices of the land, 

and Asian influence, 

the narrow road connecting 

to eternal return and Indian hero journey, 

6.

AMBIVALENT

destroyed places, ironic Hero!

singing of what is left?

American Myths, 

off again 

on my journey, that is me the HERO

large, inside 

arms spread to outside, 

Summer Sun, to sing, 

deflecting, mocking, stinging-- 

death, saying no-- I say yes, 

got to keep on somehow

making something of the wreckage

I’ve always said, Yes, 

just do it-- swoops, 

continuing 

the cycle

7.

we WERE GOING TO A HOPI DANCE

a corn dance,

dancing for rain 

and thanks for what crops were received

Kachinas represented these feelings 

and prayed for the life, to continue

a tradition of designs carried selves

weaving disparate places like Phoenix 

and Hotevilla together, 

8.

Amazing!

beyond anything we’d ever seen, 

greens, blues, wow, a real fairy land 

of Indian Paintbrush, 

yellow, red, and purple, 

back lit glowing 

orange- red psychedelic, 

the alpine reflections 

and variations 

in green and blue 

in waters reflecting all of it, 

Road Movie consists of two trips to the west and back. This is the first going to California.

I guess part of the reason I am editing this is that it is very sprawling and I was looking for the poem’s essence.