WILLAMETTE JANUARY II

It is 7:30 when

Monet paints nude tree groves with

Vaporous strokes

Dust silver water

Blindly runs past the landing

Silently whispers

Cruel eddies catch

Half submerged giants, force

Them to angry sleep

~~~

MARC AND DUKE DRIVE TO THE RESERVOIR

(Riverfront Park – East St. Louis Toodle-o)

Been on the road a while,

but the center of things, is as

much a starting place as anywhere else.

Above cars wizz west to east Salem

while the hiss from 1920s Duke Ellington begins to grate,

There is the kachunk kachunk

From a teen’s car on Commercial

It must be horribly uncool, this trip of mine.

And Duke says, “It depends on if cool is cool.”

~~~

 NOTES ON LOW

 After Phillip Glass

The melody turns in on itself with descending notes

Ascending

Descending

Turning back and forward

To seesaw percussion

The piano scales into itself with ascending notes

Ascending

Descending

Turning around

To meet the trumpets heading the other way

Five notes

Back and forth the same five notes

Fast and slow the same five notes

Then the trumpets turn in on themselves descending

Ascending

Descending

Turning back and forth with the same fingering

Like a balloon caught in a cross breeze

And turn

And turn

And turn

And turn

To show all sides

To see all the pieces

Then the picture is done