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Storm over ghost town of Bodie, California, with abandoned buildings: photo by Dave Bradford Condit, 19 July 2006
Darn, I thought something was going to happen.
Out in Bodie
the road still existed
out to the mine shaft
blowing about in the sun.
Out in Bodie
the road still existed
out to the mine shaft
blowing about in the sun.
Interior of a building at Bodie, California: photo by Tom-, 9 August 2006
Interior of saloon in Bodie, California: photo by Jeremysgirl, 20 January 2007
Un Jour Viendra / One day it will come (Methodist church, Bowie, California): photo by code poet, 9 August 2007
Firehouse in Bodie, California (with Standard Stamp Mill in background): photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Mastretti Liquor Warehouse ruins in Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Bodie bank ruins, Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Bell's Machine Shop in Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
A weathered car in Bodie, California: photo by Thomas Fanghaenel, 25 August 2007
Site of Chinatown in Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Site of Occidental Hotel in Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Site of Sawdust Corner Saloon in Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Site of Sodderling Assay Office in Bodie, California: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Bodie cemetery: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Bodie, California, from town cemetery: photo by Daniel Mayer, June 2004
Bird's Eye View photograph of Bodie, California. Looking east from the cemetery, ca. 1890: photo by William Thompson, Virginia City, Nevada image by Scewing, 15 November 2011 (Heritage Auction Gallery)
15 comments:
Mmm. I can smell the sun, the sage, my headache, (remnants of) Pleistocene lakes nearby.
WOW! Amazing . . . perfect pairing with Susan's poem.
The first time Susan guided me through Bodie, I could feel the sun burning down on the back of my neck under the baseball hat.
the splendor of the past sometimes fascinates...maybe as a sight that we try to avoid in us...
Wow, amazing post. Great poem, great pictures... what a place.
The second time there
I thought
I saw the Slinger
riding over a ridge.
His chaps very dusty.
His face
weathered like the planks
on the Saloon at Bodie.
You see,
I had picked out my pool stick
but could not play
due to the sage
until I looked around
for the inland sea
and reassured, called out
to (some of) the others.
I love the picture of the road blowing about. I've never seen that kind of light and heat do its work.
Moving from the Stevens post to this is bang on, as my Uncle John would say.
Yea, Susan’s poem certainly burns in all the right places but the clincher is that metal (?) strap keeping that old car's door shut against all the elements of the weather, right?
I agree with Jonanthan's last comment. This was the last thing I saw before going to bed last night. It stayed with me and summoned me to revisit this morning. Curtis
Tom,
Ain't never been to Bodie, it's sometimes (in winter) the coldest place in the state (cold wind "blowing about in the sun")
6.10
light coming into sky above still black
ridge, white half moon next to branches
in foreground, wave sounding in channel
another present form before,
“which in such cases”
shape itself, insofar as it
is something, similar
silver circle of sun rising above ridge,
whiteness of moon in cloudless blue sky
My summer road trip is now planned thanks to this post.
I see the name of that place, and immediately the Bad Man from Bodie in Doctorow's Welcome To Hard Times comes to mind. Very menacing dude, as I recall.
Still, no match for our Six-Gun Susan.
do poets seek out desolate
places or vice versa.? Dear TC,
A little more Bodie history
and maybe placement on a larger
map of California.
Elmo,
This article should help. See pages 12 through 15.
"I Remember Bodie": E. Louise Sartor, from Desert Magazine, December 1952
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