Joshua Tree

excerpted from Road Movie 2000


Joshua Tree

snowing? what a surprise, not what I expected,
but I’m at 5000 ft. so it’s still cold, 3” up top at
the Ranger’s Station! Not quite ready for this reentry
to winter, I drove back down to Cottonwood Oasis
south a bit, to see if there was a temperature change

it was still really cold, clouds obscuring the sun
I was impatient to get out the paints,
nature is all change,
and the snow was gone by afternoon
the evidence gone, of what I saw, what

I felt-- at what I saw
these conventions we call Art,
they replace feeling, the oil paint itself,
a signal for something--
signal for authenticity?
THE REAL THING

I’m suspicious, self conscious already
becoming, hack painter? he thought
too much, what am I doing out here?
the plain air convention from France
through the American Regionalism
I was taught to be wary of--
but I’m conscious of all this

the Irony
Well, I’m just out here painting--
I love the adventure--






arms thrown up in ecstasy
twirling in the space, my religion
my art

one, one, one--



out painting, as the hero, in the Sun
stars
we’ve left the earth for second
order, tired of the endless silence,
the blank stare of the sky

It's amazing, I get out of the car,
and can see once again








one can see everything
and its relationship
with another,
rock, sand, wisp of grass

bush to bush
lizard here to there




bird call in the wind
I spot it over there
the lizard scurries

through there
t t t tracks of a tortoise
sun going down
sun coming up
I’m here to see it all

getting up from dream
to see the flower
way more amazing
than the thought, writing
it all down,

Joshua Tree 2

poet in the desert
yes, yes, you laugh
but I’m doing it!
Spring time flowers
mountain blue birds

the sun pointing me,

ME , planet, earth, universe
nature and cycle, in the midst
amazed, I can still
feel this way



up here at the Ranger Station, I’m
up each morning to a shower, making my cot,
smoothing the Indian blanket,
I painted the back of my hat with a pictograph
design, pointing where I’ve been







a red and yellow shield on the front,
leading me forward
making coffee, listening to coyote country radio
as the sun is already hot
songs of ruined love, longing--




trailers and cars, desert loneliness,
simple relationships
busted, explained in songs
easy to see, the order in all this
sun up fast, a glaring shine on cactus flower


wild flower, watching the morning birds
by the dripping faucet, I see some footprints of coyote and deer
The ranger says the Big Horn come at night
early, the comet is whizzing
across the sky, a different language invisible to me

the rabbits, ears twitching
wind blowing
clouds like in time lapse
the blue shadows revolving
the flute like call, the oriole



from atop the Joshua Tree
this bird, to that flower
the desert sage smell and creosote,
raven gliding
coyote, jackrabbit,

make a world
to capture at once, trapping
do I want to own all this? sounds crass
sell it at the store, trophies to be hung
on the wall above the couch



wrestling with “dead boney words
rattling in teeth”
the bone heaps gathered
this special place, woven mysteries
I want to live-- among