Report #17 – 01 June 2009

(Photo by Sara Choate)

Report from the Mountains is still on the road this week, recording from the back room of Ewald’s Bar, my former writing studio and one of the places I miss most being out west. I ended up there after a short hike in the Crow Island Refuge that skirts River Road just north of Saginaw. There’s two poems in this week’s episode – one for each of these places.

The first, “Another Blue (Ardea Herodias),” was written after a day spent in Crow Island, exploring the marshes and following deer trails. I think it’s the first time that I’ve written a poem in third person that’s about myself. For many reasons, it needed that distance and anonymity. In a way, this poem is about distance: a distant memory, the prehistoric distance of pterodactyls and archaeopteryx, and the immense distance between the power of the experiences with Great Blue Heron and the weakness of that world symbolized by a buzzing airplane.

The second poem is explained by its title: “View from My Window at Ewald’s.” It’s a simple catalogue of the images that come as I sit at my favorite table with journal, pen and bottle on any given night, at the favorite local bar, in any given Midwestern, economically ravaged city. It’s a gritty, harsh, lonely reality; but most importantly, closer than all of that, is the reflection of beauty and friendship, and, always there to save us, music.

This week’s song shares that gritty, urban reality, and adds humor and groove. It’s “Hair Street” from the Lounge Lizards’ Big Heart – Live in Tokyo. If you’re not familiar with this group, you may know the band’s frontman, John Lurie, for his numerous movie soundtracks including Get Shorty. Or, you’ve seen and heard him in many Jim Jarmusch movies (my favorite is Down By Law, with Lurie, Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni). Find all you can by Lurie and the Lounge Lizards – tell ‘em Report from the Mountains sent ya – you’ll by glad you did.

Listen to the entire episode here (10 min.):

reportfromthemountains17.mp3