Kerry Park, Seattle

quick shot, Mount Rainier is like a ghost in the background…

“I would not th…

“I would not think to touch the sky with two arms” –Sappho

from “Fragments of Sappho” translated by Anne Carson

A shovel and an axe? What are you going to do…

with those, you apartment dwelling city slicker?

Maybe I’ll home, and have somebody send me some potato dirt. and some potatoes. I’ll fill one of the planters here, plant the potatoes, watch them grow.

In the fall, I’ll harvest the papas, dice them up, throw them in the cast iron with onions, peppers, some chorizo.

The apartment will smell like El Valle. My chin will be stained red. I will wipe up the Manteca with words and poetry.

I’ll take the axe, drive to where there are pinion trees, find one that is silver and dead. I’ll chop off some branches, build me a fire, watch the white smoke rise…

My Poetry week so far

Sunday, I read at Da’daedal’s Second Year Anniversary at Vermillion in Capitol Hill, Seattle. This was actually the first time  that I performed in Seattle outside of a quiet event. That was a trip. They have improv music being played behind the readers along with projections and lighting effects; it was interesting to have to find a cadence and pace that worked with the music that was going on behind me. The lighting and music made everything surreal as I sat in the row ready to get up to the mic. The night include poetry, music, visual art…

I’m still plugging away at the preliminary edit/revision of the manuscript. Every chance I get, I sit down and do a few things. I did some light revision on a the copy I printed; I’m also going through works that weren’t part of my time at Antioch to see if and where they would fit in…

Reading, reading, reading. I have been just randomly grabbing books of poetry off the shelf and reading a little bit everyday.

And this blog post is short, because after editing works, I now need to get to work!

 

Manuscript revision/work! It’s time…

Stuck! Unstuck!

I had a 1986 Toyota 22RTE 4×4. Light, fast, fun to drive, and still very capable right out of the box. One spring day, while driving into the mountains above Saguache, CO, I slid off the road on ice and snow covered rock. The right side of the truck was down in a rut. I was stuck.

My first trips “off-road” were as a passenger with my father. He first had an early Bronco, and then a 1972 Scout II. His recovery gear consisted of a transport chain with grab hooks. And a shovel, maybe. That is not a very prepared way to go out.

When I switched from muscle car to trucks, I packed basically the same gear. That is what I had with me that day, neatly packed into one corner of the bed with my toolbox and a cooler. I walked a long way to a farm house, then rode on the back of a tractor all the way back up, only to be pulled out backwards (at least the chain came in handy).

One of the first pieces of recovery gear I obtained was, of course, the mighty Hi-Lift jack (that would have saved me that long walk out). After that, I looked every where for information on self recovery. One of my favorites is the video: “Getting Unstuck” by Bill Burke. Burke’s delivery is a bit dry, honestly, and it’s not overly entertaining. But, I’ve watched it several times and have picked up some equipment based on his tips.

Last week, I watched just the beginning, when Burke details what he carries as recovery gear and I wrote down the list. I then did a quick inventory of what I have and evaluated what I have, need, want.

Here is what I now pack: Hi-Lift, Jack-Mate, Hi-Lift Off Road Kit (watch the video on the link to see how to winch with it), Hi-Lift base, two pairs of winch gloves, short D-handle shovel, bottle jack, three 5/8″ shackles with a WLL of 3 14/T, Warn winch pin (so I can use my hitch receiver as a connection by running it through the eye of the strap), tow strap, snatch strap (2″ x 20ft 18,000lb). I also have a tow strap (loops, not hooks).

I like what I pack, and feel comfortable with it. I do need to add a grade 70 transport chain with grab hooks, maybe a couple of 3/4″ shackles with a higher WLL, and maybe a winch extension to make the Hi-Lift more effective as a hand winch.  A new kinetic energy recovery rope would be good too, I like the one from ASR.

I think with these things, I can get out of most trouble on my own or with a tug from another truck.

I don’t imagine I will ever by an electric winch: they are an expensive piece of kit and need an equally expensive bumper. And, I always seem to get stuck where being pulled out backwards is the best or only option.

What do you pack, why? What do you think I should add to my kit?

UZJ100 at Pike Place

FJ60 in Colorado High Country

This is a shot of the FJ60 I used to have (sold it to my dad, so it’s still in the family) somewhere above Saguache, CO…

Little owl, you couldn’t survive your latest move…

This little owl was a sugar bowl. Apparently, I wanted to buy it for my grandparents for Christmas at the local Ace Hardware store in Alamosa, CO (I think it was known as “White’s Hardware” at the time when locally owned was the only way in small towns); I was adamant that I wanted it for them. Of course, I don’t remember any of this. I was too young then to remember it now.

I do remember it always being at their house though. Brown like the late 1970s. Never full of sugar. It always just sat on a shelf in their kitchen. When my grandma died, my grandpo moved into a small apartment and the owl moved there too. I don’t remember exactly where it sat in his place, but I remember always seeing it.

When he passed away, my dad asked me if I wanted the owl. I was confused as to why I would want a knickknack… until he told me the story of how I bought it.

It had never really been used as a sugar bowl because it had been dropped and it shattered. My grandpo glued it all back together. If you looked at it closely, you could see the fractures and glue.

Every time I moved, I packed it carefully. And it always sat somewhere that I saw it everyday in the house. But, this last move, it didn’t make it. We found it in little pieces, still wrapped up.

It’s strange how human nature works. My grandpo gluing it back together because it was a gift from his grandson. Me keeping it with me as if it was a memory I could touch. When really, the memories I have of him are of stories and hunting trips, of how little he really said about serving in WWII, of his ring finger that had been partially cut off… The owl didn’t keep those in place for me… and it doesn’t have to exist to remind me either.

Poetry workshop! Next Wednesday! with changes

I’ve posted here that I do lead a poetry workshop at Cederberg Tea House in Seattle for the art and social change group, quiet. The workshops are schedule for every second Wednesday of the month. I think this one coming up will be the one year anniversary of doing these.

The goal (and I think it has been successful) has been to give poets a supportive environment to share work in and to get feed back to help in the revision process. It has created great community as well, with a few of us becoming friends and sharing more than poetry in between workshops.

The next few will be lead by my friend Frank Spaulding. I will move to being workshopped. I am doing this to put pressure on myself to produce new work as well as continue working on my manuscript. Frank has co-lead the workshops from the beginning, has read in Seattle, and does improv theatre (and karaoke too).

If you’re a Seattle poet and would like to be part of this, just head over to quiet and RSVP through there.