Venus Rising in Aspen Grove
We took the road to Aspen Grove,
and turned off where the interstate ends:
where the funds ran out
or where the vision stopped
like the Cinema Palace when
the projectionist fell asleep.
The earth and sky come together
here, as close as spit -
and the misty net of moisture
cools the fevered lands
where sticks and kindling
once were houses.
Inside the brims of our white hats
we are circumpolar stars
in a time lapse photograph;
we cut through heaven
like quantum mandoline
picking a steel guitar.
Wild trail, ocean trail:
prison of the morning sun;
warden of the misty glen,
saving all time's elements together
for Venus to rise up again
before we Hummer home.
2 comments:
At first reading this is deeply beautiful, Montag. The language and rhythm is sumptuous. Loved the line "The earth and sky come together/here, as close as spit". And I am especially in love with the stanza:
"Inside the brims of our white hats
we are circumpolar stars
in a time lapse photograph;
we cut through heaven
like quantum mandoline
picking a steel guitar."
When the words "circumpolar stars" came, my heart melted. Then "quantum mandoline" with "steel guitar" and I was turning into a little rivulet.
This stanza followed by "Wild trail, ocean trail" is one of the beautiful moments of poetry that I've experienced. ". . . warden of the misty glen . . " - my god.
"For Venus to rise up again" leaves me wanting to start it again.
This poem is an old, maybe primordial loop. And it feels as if in one sitting Venus sent it to you. If you wrote many drafts and tinkered and tweaked, it is not perceptible, though it reads as beautifully as if you had worked on it for years.
I just feel that the language is too fresh to have been tinkered over. But I could be mistaken.
It was extremely fast; memories, pictures, feelings... and all of a sudden it rushes out.
Why a mandoline? And I mean a mandoline used in the kitchen...slicing very, very fine, like an mRI of the soul.
I wondered about the word "spit", but that's what it was, and that's how it remained.
whew!
Thank you very much.
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