photo: Sally Ryan
daydreaming w/ Bob Arnold
My friend tree
I sawed you down
but I must attend
an older friend
the sun
You are my friend —
you bring me peaches
and the high bush cranberry
you carry
my fishpole
you water my worms
you patch my boot
with your mending kit
nothing in it
but my hand
Paul
when the leaves
fall
from their stems
that lie thick
on the walk
in the light
of the full note
the moon
playing
to leaves
when they leave
the little
thin things
Paul
I knew a clean man
but he was not for me.
Now I sew green aprons
over covered seats. He
wades the muddy water fishing,
falls in, dries his last pay-check
in the sun, smooths it out
in Leaves of Grass. He's
the one for me.
Remember my little granite pail?
The handle of it was blue.
Think what's got away in my life —
Was enough to carry me thru.
_________________________________
Lorine Niedecker
from The Granite Pail
Gnomon Press, 1995
reprinted by permission of Bob Arnold
Literary Executor for the estate of Lorine Niedecker
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORINE
photograph above:
Lorine Niedecker playing the ukelele near the Rock River as a young woman.
New from Longhouse, Spring 2021 ~
Merrill Gilfillan
TUNES MEANT FOR WHISTLING
Three color booklet of new poems
by Merrill in fold-out splendor.
Both signed and unsigned editions.
Signed limited edition $20
Unsigned $12.95
(International orders please inquire)
order through Paypal with free shipping (use our email address of poetry@sover.net)
or a check to
Longhouse, PO Box 2454, West Brattleboro, VT 05303
Longhouse
Publishers & Booksellers
Green River, Vermont
2021
black and white, 56 min, 1978, digitally remastered 2014
From early Colonial times, the rural hilltowns of New England have been home to generations of dairy farmers. They earned their living through a remarkably varied combination of seasonal activities and incessant daily chores — maple sugaring, plowing, planting, cultivating, haying, logging, clearing fields, building stone walls, mending fences, harvesting crops, cutting, splitting and stacking firewood, breeding, doctoring, trading and slaughtering their cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and horses; while also daily milking & feeding their herds, mucking stalls, cooking, cleaning, tending home fires and raising their families.
All the while they supported each other in tightly knit communities sustained by shared values, mutual needs, and respect for the land.
When Jefferson envisioned the citizenry essential for the success of America's experiment in democracy, these were very possibly the type of agrarian people he well knew and had in mind: self-reliant, hard-working, good-humored, neighborly, and blessed with common sense.
Root Hog or Die is a portrait of a living remnant of this once pervasive but rapidly vanishing way of life. Filmed in 1973 in hilltowns across Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont, it follows the cycle of the farming year from spring to winter. In its course we visit with an array of elders, who reflect on farming's deep natural patterns, share their family histories and personal memories, and ponder the inevitable forces of technological and social change they have endured. The bittersweet nature of their challenges is manifest, as is the quiet pride they take in their lives as farmers.
“A significant contribution to American oral history.” — Alan Lomax
“A must for every American Studies program.” — Robert Gardner
P O E T S W H O S L E E P