%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Art Goodtimes http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/art-goodtimes <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Art Goodtimes</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2018-12-12T15:02:34-07:00" title="Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 15:02" class="datetime">Wed, 12/12/2018 - 15:02</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/art-goodtimes" data-a2a-title="Art Goodtimes"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fart-goodtimes&amp;title=Art%20Goodtimes"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/Art_Goodtimes.jpg" style="height:750px; width:525px" /></p> <p>Art Goodtimes&nbsp;of Norwood won a Colorado Council on the Arts poetry fellowship 29 years ago and served two years as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a> Poet Laureate. His most recent book is<em>&nbsp;Looking South to Lone Cone: the Cloud Acre Poems</em>&nbsp;(Sedona, AZ: Western Eye Press, 2013).</p> <h2>Poems</h2> <h3>Skinning the Elk</h3> <p>“There’s a whole lot of life in these animals”<br /> George nods, almost like a prayer<br /> as I hold the hoofed leg<br /> steady for the knife<br /> Mist rising from the gutted belly<br /> Skin still warm</p> <p>Tempered steel peels back<br /> thick hide. Fur<br /> The dark meat of the interior</p> <p>Secret organs slide steaming into full moonlight<br /> on the bed of Greenbank’s battered pickup</p> <p>I can’t stop peering<br /> into the glazed crystal<br /> of those antlered eyes</p> <p>Two perfect rivets<br /> welded to the girder of that<br /> skeletal moment when<br /> the bullet’s magic<br /> cut life short</p> <p>Later<br /> after the carcass is hung<br /> in a cottonwood tree<br /> I go inside to wash my hands<br /> But the blood won’t come off</p> <p>And there’s no mistake<br /> I am marked for life<br /> I wear the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>’s tattoo</p> <p>As its meat becomes my meat<br /> &amp; its blood stains my blood</p> <p>Spirit leaping<br /> from shape to shape</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem was first published in the anthology <em>Wingbone: Poetry From Colorado</em>, eds. Janice Hays and Pamela Haines (Colorado Springs: Sudden Jungle Press, 1986).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>At the Gate</h3> <p><em>—for Budada</em></p> <p>It’s not that I hate<br /> tradition<br /> Just the opposite</p> <p>I’m all tangled up<br /> in the quirks &amp; muons<br /> of the historical record</p> <p>As a peripatetic youth<br /> I walked the Latin of Catullus</p> <p><em>Odi et amo</em></p> <p>Chanted the chorus of frogs<br /> with Aristophanes</p> <p><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=brekekeke%5Cc&amp;la=greek&amp;can=brekekeke%5Cc0&amp;prior=*ba/traxoi" target="morph">βρεκεκεκὲξ</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=koa%5Cc&amp;la=greek&amp;can=koa%5Cc0&amp;prior=brekekeke\c" target="morph">κοὰξ</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=koa%2Fc&amp;la=greek&amp;can=koa%2Fc0&amp;prior=koa\c" target="morph">κοάξ</a></p> <p>Like Hopkins I did my penance<br /> before the twisted ivy altars<br /> of the Academy</p> <p>Memorized the classics<br /> Ran gangs as a literary felon<br /> chained to the West’s Lit tsunamis</p> <p>Homer. Vergil. Dylan. Yeats<br /> ’Til I found the hovering bird gods<br /> Now I try to</p> <p>do like Sappho did<br /> Dare to sing like a Clipper ship<br /> in a time of triremes</p> <p>To be blown by the Wind<br /> in all its gusts<br /> &amp; bombogenesis​</p> <p>Following ahead<br /> of the 8-ball of rhyme<br /> but hoping to weave behind</p> <p>a thread of spun gut argot<br /> felt through the poked fabric<br /> of our Sanskrit scifi street slang</p> <p>And may we too be led into<br /> the deep Apollonian temptation of<br /> unstrung high peak epiphanies</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes​</p> <h3>After Li Po</h3> <p>The birds<br /> have long lifted up<br /> as a flock &amp; flown</p> <p>Only a lonely Cloud floats by</p> <p>The Two of us<br /> lost in our looking<br /> the Mountain &amp; I</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed, and has appeared in the <em>Montrose Mirror</em>, the <em>Four Corners Free Press</em> and the <em>Telluride Watch</em>.</p> <h3>Learning to Smile</h3> <p><em>"I follow Freud's opinion that at birth there is no consciousness, accordingly,<br /> there can be no awareness or conscious experience ... Thus it is rare<br /> to find the smiling response before the third month of life."</em></p> <p>—Rene Spitz, <em>The First Year of Life:<br /> A Psychoanalytic Study of Normal and Deviant<br /> Development of Object Relations</em></p> <p>Floating in the sac<br /> I sucked the blood of my mother's cigarettes<br /> Her breath fed me</p> <p>When kicking in her belly I began<br /> to make my move, they rushed her<br /> fast car &amp; sirens<br /> to a monolith of brick<br /> Laid her flat on a gurney<br /> &amp; wheeled her helpless<br /> into the sterile room of deliveries</p> <p>We both felt the sudden vertigo<br /> the whirl &amp; loss<br /> as the anaesthetic took effect</p> <p>Unconscious<br /> drugged into dreams<br /> she was made to push me<br /> out of the house her body had been</p> <p>Unconscious<br /> I slid head-first<br /> into the assault of their bright lights<br /> forceps, antiseptics</p> <p>A masked man held me captive<br /> upside down</p> <p>Too soon his rubber gloves<br /> cut the cord that pumped me<br /> mother's air mixed with blood</p> <p>Too soon<br /> My face turning blue<br /> asphyxiated, brain throbbing<br /> until those brusque hands<br /> hung me by my heels<br /> &amp; slapped the life into me</p> <p>Still groggy from the drugs<br /> was it any wonder that I cried out<br /> howling at the world?</p> <p>Raw atmosphere jammed my lungs<br /> Silver nitrate burnt into my eyes</p> <p>I was born craving nicotine<br /> &amp; the smell of her skin</p> <p>But they hauled me away<br /> to be tagged, guarded<br /> &amp; quarantined</p> <p>My own father, criminal with germs<br /> allowed only a peek through glass<br /> at his first-born son</p> <p>There in the nursery<br /> tended by strange, masked women<br /> I was given a blanket to calm my fear</p> <p>So my first bond was made<br /> with impersonal cloth</p> <p>First comfort found in hugging the material<br /> close around me<br /> as later in times of stress I would grab hold<br /> of objects as though they<br /> could help soothe the loss &amp; aching</p> <p>There in the arms of obstetrics<br /> my heart dangling from the thread of<br /> its own frightened beat, I slept<br /> &amp; slept &amp; slept</p> <p>My body retreating into shock<br /> that instinctual safety valve<br /> releasing me<br /> from the merciless onslaught of<br /> modern technology</p> <p>And then they wondered<br /> why I cried<br /> when they hauled me back<br /> to the birthsmell of the Mother</p> <p>Why I couldn't focus<br /> &amp; look her in the eye</p> <p>Why it was months<br /> before I learned<br /> to smile</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed and was first published in a chapbook co-authored with Judyth Hill, <em>Altar of the Ordinary</em> (Farmington, NM: Yoo Hoo Press, 1993).</p> <h3>Seeing Bear</h3> <p>Walking Petersburg Creek</p> <p>the Tlingit's <em>Seetkah Heenuk'w</em></p> <p>across the Wrangel Narrows</p> <p>from the mud-flat sloughs of Mitkof Island</p> <p>I pass the last cabin</p> <p>last sign</p> <p>last mark on the map</p> <p>&amp; come upon brown steaming mounds of berry scat</p> <p>Piles of gutted humpies, half-chewed, fins still twitching</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Through skunk cabbage rank with growth</p> <p>&amp; devil's club waiting in ambush</p> <p>its honed thorns prickly with menace</p> <p>I skirt innocent gooseberries</p> <p>expecting the worst</p> <p>prepared around each bend for some dark hulk</p> <p>swatting fish</p> <p>&amp; the ultimate terror of <em>Ursus horribilis</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Thick groves of old growth</p> <p>soak up light</p> <p>&amp; squeeze out shapes.</p> <p>The stab of strange limbs</p> <p>Flicker of breeze</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>No quick exit out this maze of Sitka spruce</p> <p>Tangled arctic bog</p> <p>Muskeg carnivorous with quivering insects</p> <p>caught in the sundew's last embrace</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Lost in this still untamed Alaskan bush</p> <p>where two-leggeds have no more weight</p> <p>than the meat they carry on their bones</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Puffing my tin whistle like a Webelos</p> <p>Clapping hands</p> <p>Singing out of dread not joy</p> <p>I keep seeing the hundred hides of Death</p> <p>its snout hairy</p> <p>fangs bristling</p> <p>about to attack</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Shadows leap out at me from the bush</p> <p>Startled. Hungry</p> <p>Rearing up on hind legs</p> <p>So near I can smell their panic</p> <p>wild as fish breath</p> <p>Murder growling in their fierce gaze</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>To run or play dead?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Bruin gone berserk &amp; bounding towards me</p> <p>Slashed muscle</p> <p>The snapped arm ripped from its socket</p> <p>Claws long as Bowie knives</p> <p>Eyes like smoking volcanoes</p> <p>Its bulk crushing me into the earth</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Seeing hot flash</p> <p>my whole life engraved on a salmonberry</p> <p>ground to pulp</p> <p>in the molars of a steel-trap jaw</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Truth is</p> <p>walking that trail</p> <p>I meet no one</p> <p>Neither grizzly nor deer</p> <p>Not even a mouse munching lichen</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The air is crisp</p> <p>Clouds huddled against nameless peaks</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Perhaps</p> <p>for the first time in my life</p> <p>I am alone</p> <p>with the dark shape of myself</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed and was first published in a chapbook co-authored with Judyth Hill, <em>Altar of the Ordinary</em> (Farmington, NM: Yoo Hoo Press, 1993).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>The Art of Getting Lost</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Okay, so there’s this hippie</p> <p>hitchhiking on the highway to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a></p> <p>Up pulls a Winnebago</p> <p>with Texas plates</p> <p>and the tinted window rolls down</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Excuse me, pilgrim</p> <p>Could you tell me the way</p> <p>to the nearest wilderness mall</p> <p>parking lot?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>HHHHHHey, man -- get lost!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>But before you lose it</p> <p>look closely</p> <p>because</p> <p>it's not so much you losing it</p> <p>as the place that takes you away</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It's slickrock deer trail thick with juniper</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>It's Mancos shale wild strawberry avalanche chute</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>And suddenly <em>olla kala panta rei</em></p> <p>your're just another</p> <p>neopagan zenmother Budada</p> <p>Learning pandemonium</p> <p>Toking pure chaos</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Cougar in the headlights</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>Hairstreak in the rabbitbrush</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Or maybe it's at a table over breakfast</p> <p>where some resort town waitron</p> <p>Venus Kali clone takes you away</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>And falling in love</p> <p>you lose it</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Take Luna in the mushrooms &amp; quackgrass</p> <p>Rolling in it on Sheep Mountain</p> <p>that first green-eyed summer</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Or take that infamous hike we took</p> <p>to the San Miguel Canyon petroglyph</p> <p>that scribed a hoop in the earth</p> <p>&amp; led us back to our beginnings</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Remember</p> <p>you can't lose</p> <p>what you haven't found</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Crouching for shelter from Shandoka's lightning &amp; ice</p> <p>Clambering hands &amp; knees up Lone Cone scree</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>One minute next-to-death</p> <p>&amp; then</p> <p>born again &amp; again &amp; again</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Rio Grande</strong> cliff shelf narrowing to goat hold</p> <p><strong>Uncompahgre</strong>'s Tabeguache pine scratched by <strong>bear</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Getting so lost</p> <p>you find yourself</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Toad kachina grotto vision on Nuvatik-ya-ovi</p> <p>the San Francisco Peaks</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>Big Sur hot spring crotch-of-the-redwood full moon pool</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>Pacific Rim combers in a Salt Point storm slamming down fists</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Letting go</p> <p>enough</p> <p>not to panic</p> <p>but to play it like a tune</p> <p>whistled &amp; hummed</p> <p>as a hymn to the Mother</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Easy bro, Haleakala's charm</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>Yo, eating mangos &amp; making love</p> <p>in the sea cave at Kalalau</p> <p>takes you away</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>This IS my religion</p> <p>I believe in being lost</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>And everything I find on the way</p> <p><em>esta milagro</em></p> <p>&amp; what finds me</p> <p>I try to field</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Adventure not predicament</p> <p>Chasing chaos</p> <p>just as much as calm</p> <p>The only straight lines in the headwaters</p> <p>are the rifle's scope</p> <p>&amp; the map's compass</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>So, scram pathfinders. Surveyors. Engineers</p> <p>Gimme the loon's zigzag walk</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Let me lose it</p> <p>I know how to use it!</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed, annually at the Headwaters Conference at Western State Colorado University, and was first published in <em>The Geography of Hope: Poets of Colorado’s Western Slope </em>ed. David J. Rothman (Crested Butte, CO: Conundrum Press, 1998).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Hu</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Linnaeus wrote</p> <p>“The first step of science</p> <p>is to know one thing from another”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>but taking the world apart</p> <p>demands the even greater chne</p> <p>of putting it all together again</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Which is</p> <p>the creative yth</p> <p>of poet, dancer, worldmaker</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In his last years</p> <p>Linnaeus suffered a stroke</p> <p>&amp; it is said he who named &amp; classified</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>all the known species</p> <p>flora &amp; fauna, of his day</p> <p>forgot even his own name</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed and was first published in the anthology <em>Earth First! Campfire Poems </em>(Tucson, AZ: Feral Press, 1998).</p> <h3>Head On, Off &amp; Still Running</h3> <p><em>You see, we are all sentenced to die.</em><br /> —Steve Clark</p> <p>“Poor Cagney imitations,” a friend calls them, this talking<br /> through teeth locked shut with pins to repair a broken jaw</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>“Sub-candylar fracture” the doc says, glancing at the x-rays<br /> that glow with shadows lit up from behind, invisible blades</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>knifing through my skull. No chance, really. Shooting<br /> round a corner in <strong>Glenwood Canyon</strong>, narrow two-lane</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>serpentine, the asphalt damp with snow. They'd been drinking<br /> “Skunked,” the fellow said, when I awoke to lights, a blur of</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>flashing red &amp; blackness. Cars stopped. My windshield<br /> shattered. A maze of flying cracks throbbing inside my head</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>“Are you alright?” Who was this helpful stranger<br /> asking questions? “All wrong,” I told myself. A dream</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>An accidental movie that suddenly I'd become the star of<br /> Extras dabbing at blood like makeup on my face. Sirens &amp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>police. Later, at the county wrecking yard, when I saw<br /> what remained of Betzi's limegreen Rabbit, fender</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>accordioned to dash, I almost burst out laughing, giddy<br /> as a child fumbling for the cookie jar, caught red-handed</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>but given a second chance. One never escapes death<br /> but after each fresh attempt, when, almost taken</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>swiftly away, then alert as razor blades, we mark<br /> the kiss of life, so easily unnoticed amid the neon &amp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>the noise -- that moment at which we greet each guest<br /> or deny them, as they come round the corner, arms</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>outstretched, longing for our embrace. Even with<br /> teeth clenched, jaws shut, tongue entrapped in bone</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I find I can talk. Words slip through all barriers. Party<br /> once again to the amazement of speech, I touch earth</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>rebounding, free to sing through the mended hoop of these hard<br /> teeth that still, for a bit longer, bite down on the world</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed and was first published in <em>Embracing the Earth</em> (Berkeley, CA: Homeward Press, 1984).</p> <h3>Neruda</h3> <p><em>El que no comprende el amor, no sabe nada sobre el pueblo.</em><br /> —Oswaldo de la Vega</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Allende slain. Cut down by machineguns</p> <p>They call it suicide, but the world knows</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>better. And Neruda doubles up. He too dies</p> <p>his heart broken, the revolution in ashes</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Even the stones of Machu Picchu are helpless</p> <p>as the tanks of the Junta trample Santiago</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Repression floods in under the poet's feet</p> <p>His last works ruined. River diverted</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>from their banks. Compañeros tortured</p> <p>in the makeshift prison of a soccer stadium</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>They chop off the folksinger's fingers</p> <p>but he still sings. Victor Jara</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>blood weeping from his palms. His voice</p> <p>booming fearless &amp; defiant. So they shoot him</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In Spain they sent Lorca to the firing</p> <p>squad. In Russia Mayakovsky shot himself</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>But in Chile, Neruda, Neruda, red windmill</p> <p>of the Andes. He is all heart &amp; it crumples</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>at the news. Allende slain. The revolution</p> <p>in ashes. A lifetime's work turned to</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>rubble. But not washed out. No. Never!</p> <p>For the mountains, wind &amp; rivers go on</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>grinding wheat between stones, struggling</p> <p>as the people struggle, to match the rhythm</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>of his outstretched arms &amp; even in death</p> <p>he still sings. Neruda. Neruda!</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed and was first published in <em>Embracing the Earth</em> (Berkeley: Homeward Press, 1984).</p> <h3>Roadkill Coyote</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Sprawls across the centerline</p> <p>Backleg broken. Round glazed</p> <p>eyes glassy as marbles</p> <p>Unwavering, unblinking</p> <p>as the world rolls by</p> <p>now unnoticed or maybe</p> <p>all seen &amp; thus merely</p> <p>unremarkable. No fudge</p> <p>or flinch of instinct. Just</p> <p>the cold last look of it all</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I turn the car around &amp;</p> <p>go back to the body. Drag her</p> <p>off the road. Steam rises</p> <p>when I stroke her flanks</p> <p>The jaw locked open. Canine</p> <p>teeth menacing even in death</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I take out my knife, sing</p> <p>&nbsp;a death song &amp; thanking coyote</p> <p>I cut off her tail</p> <p>fur too beautiful to bury</p> <p>&amp; then pull her hind end</p> <p>deeper into the rabbitbrush</p> <p>beside the highway’s shoulder</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>All the way home, down</p> <p>the canyon &amp; up Norwood Hill</p> <p>singing her</p> <p>back into the mystery</p> <p>Copyright 13018 [2018 CE] Art Goodtimes</p> <p>This poem has been widely performed and was first published in <em>The Geography of Hope: Poets of Colorado’s Western Slope</em>, ed. David J. Rothman (Crested Butte, CO: Conundrum Press, 1998).</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/biology" hreflang="en">Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/environmental-science" hreflang="en">Environmental Science</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sociology" hreflang="en">Sociology</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/norwood" hreflang="en">Norwood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elk" hreflang="en">elk</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/wildlife" hreflang="en">wildlife</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/literature" hreflang="en">Literature</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/writing" hreflang="en">Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/foreign-languages" hreflang="en">Foreign Languages</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/psychology" hreflang="en">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bear" hreflang="en">Bear</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/geography" hreflang="en">Geography</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-history" hreflang="en">colorado history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/world-history" hreflang="en">World History</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coyote" hreflang="en">Coyote</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> Wed, 12 Dec 2018 22:02:34 +0000 yongli 2983 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org