Saturday, October 10, 2020

RE-READING JAMES KOLLER ~

 



Snow on Mount Saint Helena


the mountain behind me, I drove south & west

passed three Angels in Valley Ford

five more & a girl at the crossroads to Tomales

& four gassed up at Point Reyes Station, roared away

chrome & hair catching sunlight, to the north

to join the others


Billy & Toby were off, again

to Oregon, as per

I Ching, The Book of Chnges


going thru changes


like music


harmoniously, minor discords

like she burned or threw away everything, always

burns her bridges

pulled the old light out of the ceiling

tore the wires loose, all connections


change gears


Angels at every turn

all crossed roads


both sides, the streets lined with Harleys, choppers

of every description


         he opened her coat

         & held it open

         carefully & with expert eye

         examined

         what she had to offer

         so to speak, as it were


                                             a whole world

& nothing ever dies, it's all here

on every road, behind every tree

growing out of the ground, a beautiful

fire, flames


                          I'm grinning


exhaust, carbon


                           diamonds & threads

my mind is filled with diamonds & threads


we go off in all directions, thru intersections & crossed roads


a necklace to live in



_________________________

JAMES KOLLER

POEMS for the BLUE SKY

Black Sparrow Press, 1976


___________________________________

A gorgeous book of poems, if you can find

yourself a copy, spanning the wealth of one decade —

the 1960s, which Koller had a vivid and active eye to.

Along with poems that come from the vanished, are the

poets versions of songs of the Tlinget and the

Teton Sioux, working after John R. Swanton

and Frances Densmore. One of Koller's

loveliest poems is also here, "Wind"

which reads the best in the context of all the book.

Less than 100 pages and every page a gem.

I BUILD WITH AN AXE


[BA]


photograph of James Koller

by Alo Zanetta