Y O K E L
a long Green Mountain poem
____________________________
Selected books by Bob Arnold
Rope of Bells
Habitat
Thread
Self-Employed
Back Road Caller
Gaze
Go West
Long Time Together
Cache
Where Rivers Meet
On Stone, a builder’s notebook
By Heart, pages from a lost Vermont
This Romance
Happy As You Are
American Train Letters
Tiny Summer Book
Beautiful Swimmers
Engine Trouble
Once In Vermont
Sunswumthru A Building
So What Should We Call This Life?
Life’s Little Day
Dream Come True
Hiking Down From A Hillside Sky
My Sweetest Friend
A Possible Eden
Gentleman
( 2011 )
Contents
Y O K E L
This Morning In The Rain
What Does The Robin Do 3
Thieves 4
Ministers 5
How Wars Begin 7
Skill 8
Countryside 9
Holiday 10
Earrings 11
Poet 12
Stars 13
Occupied 14
Fitzcarraldo 15
Preacher 16
Innuendo 17
Rule Of Thumb 18
B R I D E O F Y O K E L
Work Day 21
Nothing 22
Limp 23
Diary 24
Garden 25
Bomb 26
She Talks 27
Snazzy 28
Moses 29
Thaw 30
Chores 31
Farm Voice 32
Love Her 33
A Gift For The Living 34
Fix-a-flat 35
Wait A Moment 37
Giraffe 38
The Evening Bird 39
The Kiss 40
Mankind 41
S O N O F Y O K E L
Hot Work Day 45
Staring At The Engine 46
Driving 47
In Valley 48
Wreck 49
Fire 50
Neighbor 51
Visitors 52
Visitors 2 53
Visitors 3 54
Visitors 4 54
Visitors 5 55
Cellar Job 56
The Worse Thing About A Young Son 57
One Of The Best Things About A Young Son 57
Goliath 58
Teddy 59
Mowing 60
W O O D C U T T E R Y O K E L
Peavey 63
Manual 64
Hike 65
Planet 66
Election 67
Timberman 68
Vinegar 69
This Is What Native Says At 50 Feet Up 70
Native Never Made It 72
Without 73
Wind 74
Woodlot 75
Logger 76
Old Trick 77
Woodcutter’s Memo 78
Lumbermen 79
Hauling Wood 80
Reclaimed 81
B A S T A R D Y O K E L
Men Without Women 85
Farmhand 86
Killing in the Farmyard 87
Old Hand 88
Old Town 89
Other 90
City~Boy 91
Work Truck 92
Names 93
Big Mouth 94
Potatoes 95
To Build A Barn 96
Stonemason Credo 98
Back Road Archaeology 99
An Old Timer 100
Chimney Fire 101
Gone 102
P A S T U R E S O F Y O K E L
Field Guide 105
Pastures of Plenty 106
Lifetime 108
Parallax 110
Farmer 111
July in the Sun 112
After the War 113
Tough Guy 114
Ceremonial 115
Yesterday Today Tomorrow 116
Come Closer 117
After Chores 118
Info 119
G O ~ A L O N G Y O K E L
Milking 123
Pals 124
The Moral 125
Peaceable Kingdom 126 ~ 134
Manure 128
Makes No Difference 129
Dodge 131
Spring Air 132
Many Spring Seasons 133
Little Differences 135
Nowhere 136
Go~Along 137
Author’s Biography 139
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You got tuh go there tuh know there
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
_______________________________________________________
for a river & its valley
This Morning in the Rain
What Does the Robin Do
Takes long brown grass mowings
Neglected by the rest of the world
High off to her maple tree nest —
Sings back to us
Thieves
It was the best of times before the newcomers
And jokers and snitches moved down here
Into the valley. One of the best jobs we ever
Did was to steal the finest rock off of the stone
Walls that lined here and there along the
Roadside, and when I built the long retaining
Stone wall for Native in front of his new house
It was this stone I used to work with that came
Off the land later owned by the newcomers.
Of course I had to caution Native’s boys not
To touch my own stone walls since you couldn’t
Always trust the kids no matter what they did.
It took me two years to build those walls.
And for over a week the boys would go down
The road with Native and throw the stone onto
His pickup and get it back to me waiting with
Enough to do and whatever couldn’t be easily
Moved Native would climb up into his bucket
Loader and flip-over for me what wide rock
Would set best at the bottom and allow this
Wall to now stand up over many years.
Ministers
The time we took the mattresses to Native
Ended up all wrong and not what we intended.
You learn to expect that. What you would do
They may not. It was three perfectly fine mattresses
That came with the old farmhouse when we
Bought it from the minister. Ministers that
Practice their trade of being holy men tend
To have the strangest habits but thank god
For these habits. Our man kept things and
Often gave them away as gifts when the
Occasion arose. So after we bought his
Old place where he lived a spartan existence
Of visiting from town to write his sermons
We moved out the lawn chairs he and his
Wife used for furniture inside and out—and
That’s the first time I’d ever seen that—then
Some other odds and ends and finally to the
Cache of mattresses on the second floor
Piled up as if once upon a time the minister
Had plans to do something up there, where
The bats and mice lived a carnival life of
Making the place all their own, but what
Do you expect since for years before a
Farmer had stored his hay up there and
Tossed down the bales to his small herd
Of cows below kept there as free rent for
Keeping the place grazed. Where now we
See windows used to be holes in the wall
Tacked over with loose blowing tar-paper.
It didn’t take long to get the mattresses
Down the stairs and loaded onto the top
Of our VW bug since we were in a hurry
To clean up that second floor and make it
Part of a house once again.
I’d been working with Native
That week and could see his three
Young boys running the dooryard like
Puppies on two legs, filthy and laughing —
It may be a smidge crowded to fit the
Mattresses into their small trailer but it’d be
Comfortable and Native was all for it when
He saw me sway the load down into his yard
As he crawled out from under his truck gunked
Up but appreciative. He quickly scanned the
Old farmstead where I had worked with his father
And as he did, I did again, wondering how in
The hell one guy could make it all go down the
Drain so fast with junk car parts and wrecks
And a million half-finished jobs that his heart
Was once into but hey, why not set them over
On the roof of that Chevy and I’ll do something
With them, he said. He then helped me shift the
Load from the VW onto the other car and we
Talked awhile and I felt good when leaving and
Taking a final look at the minister’s mattresses
And how much he would have liked this gesture.
But I’ve learned ever so slowly. A pity.
Three days later after one of those wicked summer
Thunderstorms I stopped down at Native’s and
Couldn’t believe, and still don’t, how the mattresses
Were still on the Chevy, never moved, went through
The storm and sagged triple-layer-cake-like and ruined.
Native came out of his trailer finishing some snack
Nodded his head and said hello.
I waved back and still do.
_______________
Bob Arnold
Yokel
Longhouse
2011
