day 2: feb 20
Day Two
February 20, 2023
seven days dreaming the dark of a new moon
day two: february 20, 2023
Why is this something listeners should hear? goes one question in a grant application I am reading right now.
It makes me so angry
that question.
All the poetry sweeps out in a huff, gathering her skirts about her
Apoplectic
That word.
popping red with anger.
Why should I care about a river that once ran in a lost valley, someone asked me once, after I had made a film about a river in a lost valley.
also, he called me young lady.
also, he looked quite pleased with himself, throwing provocation around on a pastel themed morning talk show.
"Should"
As if story is the sugar that makes a medicine of message go down
whereas story is the spoon
is the mouth
is the metal
is the air around the spoon the mouth and the metal
is the shadow
is the light
is the IS
what calls me to speak or sing or play a story
what calls you to stop listen respond
is shadow shade light sluice river song
bird feed
back bone
the past is always present, I said to him
we are creating and recreating all the time
that river
now dry
still runs
I said
thank you, young lady he said, and named someone else, the man sitting beside me, the PR person he knew by name.
and then the segment was over
and we're clear
the lights went off
in this dark of the new moon
i call the poetry back
forget the skirts
forget the huff
the language that is shade
shadow
river
bone
is as old
as the animal
once
sightless
in the sea
the poems wants to run
like the rivers that flood
their banks after
rains
like the boys who chase after
horses in the red earth
towns of my childhood
the poem is
the endless
yawning
deepest dark
of underwater
trenches
that are beyond
the reach of our bodies
but we can go there
in story
in memory
yes in memory
we are of that dark
that water
that fish
that rock
that moss
that lichen
that cell
that bang
Bang
back to the beginning
back to should
poor should
listen, I like you well enough as
shall
"shall we dance"
"shall we walk"
but become should
and the sound strikes me down
so long, should
go find your own story
go sing your own song
get lost in the lost valley
where the river still runs...
PS: There’ll be a lag time of a few hours between your posting and the words appearing in the comments.
