Tidal Echoes Launch 4/2/2011

Okay; a good turnout at last night's UAS Tidal Echoes launch gathering where many local poets/writers were in attendance.  Here's my contribution:

ECHO CANYON

                   “…No one loves rock,

                                      Yet we are here…”

- Gary Snyder

Winding this thin jeep trail of a road

Between high desert walls;

Snaking it through layered rock,

A jumble of broken plates

Fired red with dusk –

Our feet slip in loose gravel;

Predicted silence

Echoes deep into our ears.

We’ve come all afternoon,

Eyes and legs and hearts

Scrambling among warped stone

For some place to spread our camp.

Now,

Blankets open to the stars,

We lay ourselves down,

Tracking the unseen path of bats

Against a darker plate of sky;

Weeds scratch the ground behind our ears.

Simple rock,

Beneath a winter moon;

This earth relaxing warmth into the night –

Chorused by the song of dogs,

We wade into such dreaming.

It was an absolute honor/pleasure to participate in this event.  Props to UAS staff and Kaleigh Lambert for providing the opportunity to share the rostrum with the likes of Heather Lende, Nicholas Galanin, and JNU poet Kate Laster/Quixote.