.
In the motel
room mirror
a yellow
light pulses
on polyester lips
pressed to sandwiches of hair
Route 66 Motel sign, Needles, California: photo by Renjishino, 2007
Route 66 Motel, Needles, California: photo by Renjishino, 2007
Route 66 Motel, Needles, California: photo by Renjishino, 2007
Ah, and this now too (!) WCW showing us the way, way back then -- and here we are, moving on, still noting 'things'. . . .
ReplyDeleteThank you, Steve, for qualifying to be the first contestant in the trivia contest concealed in this post.
ReplyDeleteAnd the question is...
Which American poet came from Needles?
Tom,
ReplyDeleteWhy AN of course (first name Alice). By the way, odd thing just found here -- the comment I'm sure I left you yesterday (under Stevens poem I think, where my screen said this morning there were 2 comments) had somehow disappeared -- no comments there, so I've tried to 'reconstruct' what I wrote then, for better or worse. . . .
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteHoly moly, the things that can happen in a "free country"!
First, as to the mysterious case of the missing comments, I would refer you to the discussion here.
(It seems to be disappearance upon Disappearance, at this point.)
Second, bingo with the trivia answer.
AN is not only the correct answer but has now been added to the suspects list.
And your prize, Stephen?
All your comments, or at least as many of them as I could pry away from beneath the enveloping robes of Mnemosyne, have now been restored.
(That only took... two hours, gasp, sigh.)
I just love this. . .
ReplyDeleteI read some poems in your blog and seen the quality of the pictures use to illustrate them. Congratulations from the heart, because obviously you get to read of you ...
ReplyDeleteI hope my English is clear enough to understand.
I'm amazed
Tom,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all such thoughts on disappearing comments (I refer you to one further curiosity -- appearance of comment one can't read (unless one reads Chinese) which I'm told might be from "robots" in the system -- beware (?). Meanwhile, from motel on Route 66 in Needles to view of day unfolding here on the western edge of the continent ---
4.7
first grey light in sky above black plane
of ridge, white half moon next to branch
in foreground, wave sounding in channel
light taken as pink or grey,
sketch with letter to
in which sight shows itself,
“countenance,” “thing”
cloudless blue sky reflected in channel,
white of half moon to the left of point
B,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
I opted for this turquoise and yellow motel set because the sign was just too flaky to pass by. Finalists included an extremely bleak pink concrete bunker-look motel somewhere in Scotland, some Arizona wigwam bungalow units, the world's first motel (Spanish style, San Luis Obispo, long since closed and now fenced off), and the Universal Studios set of the Bates Motel from Psycho.
Happy you liked my choice.
Belugar,
Welcome, I am happy to see a friend of Lucy's!
Steve,
Thanks for
light taken as pink or grey,
I always love it when those two shade into one another.
(Idiot car alarms going off out front here, scaring the poor opossum.)
Bowie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this (comments have been appearing and then disappearing here of late, apologies):
Bowie Hagan has left a new comment on your post "Democracy":
I really enjoy this poem.
Thanks-
Bowie
Posted by Bowie Hagan to TOM CLARK at 7 April 2010 15:40
I have no clue about the hidden trivia you seek Tom. But this is an extraordinary poem.
ReplyDeleteThe imagery is incredibly poised.
Bowled over .. .. Simply.
Thank you Aditya.
ReplyDeleteThis one was a small inadvertent elegy on America.
(Don't worry about the trivia question, just a bit of American culture-industry silliness. In any case the astute Stephen immediately revealed the lack of difficulty in my trivia contest by answering the question.)