Ode to Chandler and Price

photo by the artist

wonder wheel,

spider inside spider

spinning and flexing, 

utopian soaring papers unfolding,

webs of symmetry

distinguished 

between 

spaces,

quads,

picas,

among

imagined lines vertical,

rushes of words composed

 interlocking determination cells,

print onto paper,

white becoming black,

black unlocking unabashed stars.

long ago,

turn of the 19th century Poets

bestowed wonders

across generations,

impregnating posterity with hip unpretentious visions

now mirroring "Mule Mountain Dreams" 80 years hence,

as if ordained,

puritanically predestined,

another point of reference published here and now,

a grand tome

human appendages could turn,

modern minds could interpret 

from a wider profound knowledge of destinies.

thus,

we ape our grandparents.

and long before that, 

printing presses navigated

European tides, 

Atlantic Ocean

sweltering summers,

exceptional endless images of

self-expressive experiments,

their collective Guttenberg will and madness 

pirating more books away from death's greedy jaws.

so conjuring further dreams unrecalled

in times of morning toast and tea,

we are reminded that historical delight and wonder 

can be transported by esoteric wooden ships, 

rendering life from its very vibrancy,

stating the miracle of words onto paper.

then here in our entrusted garden,

orbs magnetically moving,

shadows hunched over type,

hair tied back into the light,

fleeting moths imparting volumes of promise

overflowing with visions and wit and jazz, 

we caretakers of this continuous web

weave words figurative and literal,

perhaps intoxicating yet other delighted victims,

perhaps inaugurating yet further descendants.

1979

Philadelphia Hotel, 

Bisbee, AZ