The two poems featured in this week's Report are both about Branta canadensis, the Canada Goose. Great flocks of these birds converge on the marshes of the Shiawassee NWR near my old town of Saginaw, Michigan. Their sound can be heard from a mile away and up close, is deafening. Also, we used to have nesting pairs on Beebe Lake at Camp Rotary. I once slowly walked up to one on the north end of the lake, talking quietly until I was close enough to touch him. I didn't try, and after a while, he walked to the lake's edge and calmly swam away. That kind of stuff used to happen to me all the time when I lived there. Truly a magical place.
The first poem is by my late uncle Henry Colebank, author of half a dozen really wonderful chapbooks. "Wild Geese" is the title poem of one of my favorites. I love his use of internal rhyme and the musical economy of his writing. You should have heard it in his voice -- a powerful and moving experience.
My response to his poem is my piece titled "The Things We've Lost (Branta Canadensis)." It comes from a moment I was given while hiking at Green Point. A handful of geese passed overhead, low enough for me to listen to the song of their wings, like small distant bullroarers being spun. The three lines written at my uncle's funeral that I reference were a haiku that was published in my chapbook The Lost Writings of Miscellaneous Jones. Here it is:
Rain clouds mourn our loss
The poet makes his passage
Wild Geese bear him home
This week's music selection is "What's It All About?" from 1959's Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges. Personnel on this album: Gerry Mulligan (Baritone Saxophone), Johnny Hodges (Alto Saxophone), Claude Williamson (Piano), Buddy Clark (Double Bass), and Mel Lewis (Drums).
And now, I'm heading up to Bone Field and beyond. Thanks for supporting "Report from the Mountains."
Listen to this week's full episode here:
reportfromthemountains05.mp3
good to read
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