Union Pacific #8

Fragile white sky
            electric wire scars a
black crow scratching grit in frozen
gravel a black guitar case a
            nickel chrome guitar inside it my
                    lungs white fragile scarred &
shattering in ice the sky will shatter
            someday but perhaps not this morning it’s
                    19 degrees in Rawlins Wyoming
the massive frozen creak of Union Pacific
cars inching along the siding un-
                    certain atavistic yellow a
black backpack a black baseball cap a
pair of clip on sunglasses the
            slivers of grass white &
broken across the embankment below the
            siding the sky doesn’t
shatter I’m short of breath the
            car’s loaded I’m going back some-
place I’ve never been the petrified
freight cars & locomotives hulk   
            waiting but the white sky won’t
shatter we will
            say goodbye
            say goodbye
            say goodbye

Jack Hayes
© 2010
 
[To see other poems in this sequence, please click on the "UP Poems" label]

A Blow Against H8

Hello folks!  I'm happy to announce - in case you don't know this from any other source - that Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker today overturned California's heinous Proposition 8, AKA Prop H8.  Please check out our dear friend & colleague Audrey Bilger, who also blogs for Ms.  Audrey's post on the ruling is right here.  To anticipate just a tad, part of Judge Walker's ruling reads as follows:

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis,the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

Although Robert Frost's Banjo only occasionally ventures into the political arena, I've made my opinions about Proposition 8 - & by extension, similar measures in other states - clear on this blog since its early days in 2008.


But enough from me - head on over to Audrey's space at Ms.  Don't miss it!

Adams County Makes the News - Council Leader #17

The Council Leader
Published Every Thursday by the Council Publishing Company
Fred Mullin, Editor

SAVE YOUR POSTS

The following formula, if used according to directions, will preserve fence posts and prolong their life many years.  I have seen in western Oregon fences constructed with ordinary second growth fir posts that have stood for twenty years and upon examination, the posts were found to be perfectly sound.

    Corrosive Sublimate:    2 oz.
    Arsenic:        6 oz.
    Salt (common table):    12 oz.

Take timber the size posts are wanted in spring after the sap has raised, cut the desired length, be careful to leave the bark on and not break.  The posts must be set little or top end down.

Before setting the posts, take a three-quarter inch augur and bore a hole in the post one inch above the level of the ground after the post is set, also bore a like hole fifteen inches from the top of the post, each of the holes to be bored to the center or heart of the post.  Now put one teaspoonful of the above mixture into each of the holes and drive a plug therein tight.  Do not crowd the mixture too mixture too much.  Care must be used that the plug fits the hole tight; then set the post in the ground. 

LOCAL ITEMS, 1913

Frank Lauzon, of Cuprum, was a business visitor in town Tuesday and made this office a pleasant call.

Isaac Glenn is carrying his arm in a sling.  He was riding a fractious colt which threw him off, breaking his wrist.

Last Friday night Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mullin gave a surprise party to their son, Dale, to commemorate his sixteenth birthday anniversary.  His school class of eighth graders were invited and dropped in on him in a body, making the surprise complete.  Games and music were the order of the evening; refreshments were served and a pleasant evening spent.

A deal was consummated this week whereby Bert Kilkeny became owner of the John Lakey ranch eight miles up Hornet Creek, and in exchange, Mr. Lakey takes the Kilkeney property, bakery and confectionery.  Mr. and Mrs. Lakey have a wide circle of friends, and having had some experience in the line they are entering will no doubt do a good business.  Mr. Kilkeny and family are moving out to the ranch today where Bert contemplates pailing the muley cow, raising piglets, etc.  The Leader wishes both families unbounded success.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Tom Glenn of Fruitvale on Sunday March 9th, a daughter.  All are doing nicely.  This makes the even half-dozen children for them.

Billie (W.R.) Brown, our well-known and popular confectioner, has sold his establishment to Albert Woodell, who took possession last Monday.  Mr. Woodell is well known to our people, having clerked in the Criss store until recently.  He is a first-class store man and will continue the high standard heretofore maintained, and intends at all times to keep a good stock of everything in his line.  Mr. Brown retains ownership of the building and expects this summer in company with Sam Whitely and Frank Mathias to go to their prospect on South Fork Salmon, where they propose to take out a car of ore and ship it to the smelter with a view to finding what their property is worth.

March 14, 1913
COUNCIL TO THE SEA

“The P. & I. N. railway will be extended north this year from New Meadows down the Little Salmon to Riggins, where the P. & I. N. will connect with the Gilmore and Pittsburgh railroad from Salmon City to Lewiston.  The information comes from a source that is quite authentic.”  Boise Capital News

Following this information comes a dispatch from Lewiston dated March 8 which reads:  “The hope of the people of the northwest for a half century will be realized during the year 1914—an open river from Lewiston to the sea—and making of this city in reality a seaport connecting with the deep water ports of the world.”

Thus it will be seen that the opening of the river from Lewiston to the sea is assured, and all that remains to connect the Council section to a nearby seaport is the building of a thirty-five mile extension of the P. & I. N.  It goes without saying that all know what such a connection would mean to Council and we should therefore do anything in our power to further the proposed extension of the P. & I. N.

July 26, 1915
PROPOSED RAILROAD ROUTE

It is hard to find a more needed railroad in the United States than between Grangeville and Lewiston or New Meadows.  It has been demonstrated that this county raises as hardy an apple as is grown in the United States and there is a big demand in foreign countries for Council Valley apples.  There are billions of feet of timber in this county waiting for the saw and then will be ready for the market in foreign lands.  Our mining industry is just in its infancy, and when fully developed will offer a considerable amount of ore for transportation.  It is pointed out that while the route of the Pacific & Idaho Northern Railway appears to be in every respect the best route traversing a district capable of the highest degree of development, yet there is an alternate route up Long Valley, which, if adopted, would leave the people of our district precisely where they are now in matters of transportation.

September 17, 1915
P. & I. N. RAILWAY

Since the advent of the Long Valley road, the P. & I. N. has had a hard row to hoe, but Mr. Heigho has maintained excellent service under the circumstances and says he will continue as long as possible only cutting the service as a last resort.
The service part is up to the people.  The jitney in some of the communities is hurting the road’s business.  The railroad uses what it makes in the summer to pay winter expenses, and if the people insist on patronizing the jitney in the summer they will have to take what they can get in the winter when the jitney cannot operate.  The competition is not fair, for the jitney is free-lance while the railway is held accountable to the Public Utilities and other commissions.  We are pleased to say that the Council country has stood loyally by the railroad.


compiled by Eberle Umbach

"How The Journey Begins"

[Sorry to say that this brings B.N.'s Journey Music manuscript to a close; both B.N. & I have so much appreciated your support for her poetry!  But not to worry: B.N. has fiction that I'll be posting on Robert Frost's Banjo.  Please stay tuned for details, but I will tell you that the first such post is slated for Monday, August 30!]

How The Journey Begins


Because the journey always begins near an over harvested forest
Filling with expansive patches of snow
You can still imagine the wide open clearing
And how you stood, your breath rising
A thin white awning in front of you,
Like a fragile veil that might evaporate in the sunlight.

There are nights torn open still, you awaken to a blink of street lights
Trying to conjure up the image of a distant forest
The sibilants of a language that once you
Knew. But the memory is always problematic like falling snow
At the end of a slow epic movie, and when most people rise
To leave the theater you remain trying to see a clear

Picture of what moved you, the fleeting final shot, a table cleared
And an empty kitchen, or just the lights
Coming up again, the gentle collapse of the rose
Colored curtain. There are wrongs as thick as forests
And days when you can't help but return to a snow
Filled country. There exists no calender for you

What happened, happened often without documentation, and you
Have no real idea how many days passed—clear
Nights punctuated only by a brief snow
Fall in early spring, and a glimpse of a sudden shaft of light
Pouring through an open trap door near a thicket at the edge of a forest.
As silent as steam the monks still rise

For matins. And you too woke and rose
To the whisper of their cloth as it brushed against you.
For nearly three years you lived near a thinning forest
In the remains of a wine cellar knowing that clearly
There are places where a heart can starve for want of light
And that the rescue of entire lives might be made possible by snow.

Years later in a field you saw a horse marked abstractly by snow,
Grazing behind a fence where the land  begins to slowly rise
Away from the sea, only bottles of colored glass in the window catch light
Masquerading as the shades  of wine that kept you
Company. No matter how hard you try to clear
Away that part of memory, you can't remember the word forest

In that language. Other words rise so lightly
And fall like snow or ash through a clear sky
But forest is the one you want, the word you have forgotten.

B.N.
© to the author 1983-2010

Elephant Cloudland – The Album!

Happy Monday afternoon everybody.  Musical Monday continues, as I’m here with an announcement that’s exciting to both Eberle & me, & I hope will be exciting to some of you, too.  Back in June 2004, our group The Alice in Wonder Band recorded 9 tracks that we intended for use as an album to sell at gigs.  We were generously allowed to use the chapel at Marymount Hermitage—a room with amazing acoustics—& we brought our friend Joshua Housh up from the Bay Area to do the sound.  Dani Leone, whom readers know as L.E. Leone & Sister Exister, accompanied Mr Housh & did a lot of everything to help out.  The Alice in Wonder Band members who participated in the recording were, in addition to Eberle & myself: Deadre Chase, our vocalist; Lois Fry on violin & viola; Art Troutner on oboe, tenor recoder & mandolin; & Bob George on clarinet.

For a variety of reasons, we never did get the tracks mixed in a final way, tho we were happy with the results overall.  Then the band broke up at the end of the year, & while we gave away a handful of copies to family & friends, the project lay dormant.

I’m happy to say that, six years after the fact, the album is finally available!  It’s a free digital download on BandCamp, & you can download either the entire album or individual tracks right here.

There are only 8 tracks on the album as it now exists (tho over 40 minutes of music).  We recorded Billy Taylor’s “Cool & Caressing” that day, but we don’t have rights to this, so I can’t include it.  I also chose to use a live recording of Eberle’s beautiful song “Plum Alley,” since the mixing on the studio recording is in need of serious help & I don’t have the master tracks to work with.

Hope you enjoy it!  & stay tuned, because next Monday I’ll be posting the Alice in Wonder Band song for August, complete with slideshow (of course!)

"Levee Camp Moan"

Happy Monday!  It’s time for the Monday Morning Blues again, but I’m doing things a bit differently from here on out—the tune is embedded in mp3 form, not as a video.  Why this change?

A few reasons.  First, I’ve been procrastinating recording a cd, & that’s something I really should get done because it will add at least a little more "mad money" from gigs.  While I have a high tolerance, & indeed great enjoyment, for playing & performing, I tend to have a low tolerance for the recording process—while I generally like having done it, I don’t so much like doing it, & it’s always a bit of a problem with anything creative when result is valued over process.

So I’m hoping that the shift to mp3s on the Monday Morning Blues will be a motivating force.  In addition, tho, I can get much better quality recordings with our digital workstation than I can with our webcam; & on top of the marginal sound quality on the webcam mic, there’s the problem that the audio & the video are a split second out of sync, which can be a bit “crazy-making” to anyone trying to watch.  & at this point, anyone who’s followed the blog for any length of time knows what I look like when I play guitar & sing!

Today’s song is by the great Son House, one of the real masters of the delta blues.  Actually, House did two versions of “Levee Camp Moan” that are quite different—this one is based on the first version I heard, on his Delta Blues & Spirituals (Capitol); there’s also an older take of a similar version that I believe was recorded prior to son House’s “re-discovery” in the 1960s.  House was certainly important to the history of blues as a mentor to Robert Johnson, but he was a first-rate blues musician in his own right, with a powerful slide style & vocals of amazing power.  In addition to serving as a mentor to  Robert Johnson, House also mentored Howlin’ Wolf & Muddy Waters, & was close to his Charlie Patton & Willie Brown.

The tune was recorded on our Boss digital workstation.  It’s a “live recording”—no overdubs, vocal & guitar performed together.  There was some minor tweaking with EQ & reverb, but all fairly minor stuff.  I record using an AKG 880D mic for the vocals & a Shure Beta 57a mic for the guitar—same set-up as when I play live.  The guitar is my Gold Tone resonator, in open D tuning—&to any purists: yes, I know Son House recorded this in open G.

Hope you enjoy it!

Photo of the Week 8/1/10

Roller Skates in the Adams County Fair Building,

Council, Idaho
  Friday, July 30th

Please check out today's post at The Days of Wine & Roses; it's the next poem in the A Few More Fold-Out Postcard Sonnets series.