Ode to Chandler and Price

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 into paper,

white becoming black,

black unlocking unabashed stars.

long ago,

turn of the 19^th 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 navigating

European tides,

Atlantic Ocean

sweltering summers,

exceptional images of

endless experiments in self-expression,

this madness of their collective Guttenberg will

pirating more books away from greedy death.

so while conjuring up further dreams unrecalled

in times of morning tea and toast,

we are reminded that historical delight and wonder

can be transported by esoteric wooden ships,

rendering life somehow from its very vibrancy,

if only to state 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

busy weaving words figurative and literal,

perhaps intoxicating yet other victims,

perhaps inaugurating yet further descendants.

1979

Philadelphia Hotel,

Bisbee, AZ