(in memory of Glen)
arrive in darkness
another dead soul
seeking refuge:
room key, elevators
sauna, ice & pay tv
but open drapes
in the dawn to
a still-life mountain
& the lake huge
with frost
nothing moves
for at least 10 mins.
except the sun
herding a troop of trees
up a ridge
& a solitary skater
pirouetting across
the swept ice
of a postcard morn
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Connected consciousness meets wish fulfilment. The chateau was and is at Lake Louise. I had stayed there for conferences, but never before with late snow in the spring. In the ’80s, my textbook writing partner and I were there judging the poetry entries of our city newspaper’s annual writing contest.
As usual, the best stuff writes itself as this did. The consciousness is particularly active and ready to record in the right context. Identifying, in turn, with the escape to the hotel, the clarity of morning thought, the grand landscape itself, and finally the lone human being enjoying the solitude, I connected to him, and –as in “Distress call”–he was me and I was him. Wish fulfilment is behind much of (my) writing. A heady, connected moment of being. Much of man and nature (in its more peaceful forms) rolls out like that for me.