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Topographies of Light

By David Rachlin

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 David Rachlin
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-3977-3

Contents

Topographies of Light......................................................1Arrival....................................................................2Four ink drawings by Dan Namingha..........................................3Cliffs.....................................................................7Rain Over Truchas..........................................................8El Malpaís............................................................9Desert View 1..............................................................10Tomorrow I Will Drive to Abiquiu...........................................11Abiquiu....................................................................13After Reading Momaday......................................................14Plaza Blanca, Abiquiu......................................................16Inner Courtyard............................................................17One Small Rock.............................................................18Walking Rain Near Taos Mountain............................................19For That Young Man in Taos.................................................20Five Retablos..............................................................21Rocks I....................................................................23Rocks II...................................................................24A High Desert Collage......................................................25Lost Languages.............................................................26Poems for My Father........................................................27Houses.....................................................................30Birch Trees................................................................31Petroglyph Inventory, Moab, Utah...........................................32Desert View II.............................................................33A Midwestern Convocation...................................................34Short Manifest of Genocide.................................................35Making More Ruts in the Mud................................................36Signal Mountain, Wyoming...................................................37Prairie....................................................................38An Inland Periplus.........................................................39Clouds.....................................................................40Maps.......................................................................41Shrine 1...................................................................42Shrine 2...................................................................43Shrine 3...................................................................45Shrine 4...................................................................46Shrine 5...................................................................48Shrine 6...................................................................49View of Alkmaar, North Holland.............................................50Panoramic View of the Amstel Looking towards Amsterdam.....................51Rusting Angel..............................................................52Meditations on Vermeer.....................................................53The Goldfinch..............................................................56Wanderer at the Edge of the Sea............................................57Two Men Observing the Moon.................................................58Notes on the Poems.........................................................59Acknowledgements...........................................................63

Chapter One

    Topographies of Light

    Almonds and pistachios ground to a course meal
    Burnt umber singes on old parchments
    Candles burning in the inner depths of caves
    Damp trails through the wooded maple hills
    Evergreen oil smoothed into the dovetail joints of bridges
    Forests where the deer are shadows at dusk
    Gazelle tracks in the mud after the solar eclipse
    Haze and smoke rising from the volcanic rim
    Ink spots on leather-bound books of songs no longer sung
    Jasper, agates, and jade strung on crystal chains
    Kaleidoscopes where images appear as dreams
    Languages used by men who love old maps
    Memory of blue iris where they could never survive
    Night scents on the handles of worn suitcases
    Oak leaves attached to balsa wood with beaver quills
    Pebbles polished by time running out with the tide
    Quests for silver under the wingspan of doves
    Remaining warmth of chants
    Shadows of caribou on snowy shores of lakes
    Thin layers of mica peeled from the surface of the future
    Umbers and sepias washed ashore after a winter storm
    Veins of marble running through the night sky
    Water as steam and ice flowing from glacier-scarred plains
    Xylem tracking gold from the moon
    Yarns wrapped around the sounds of flight
    Zealous wings of butterflies on the yaw of wind


    Arrival

    What were you expecting from the desert?
    Mica alone is not a metaphor.
    Nor are the sudden saguaro blooms,
    the prickly pears, the tall chollas, or the rushing arroyos
    whose whispers meant words you couldn't hear.
    The long interstates from up north
    drew you along the indecipherable white lines.
    Dash dash dash as if someone spelled it out for you
    in a riddle you needed to unravel,
    monotonous and without meaning.
    Stopping in Tucumcari. The bowl of chili
    had a layer of grease,
    the screen door had tears where flies entered.
    The car dashboard insinuated the coming dark
    though you could only squint
    as the highway shimmered on for miles.


    Four ink drawings by Dan Namingha

    1.
    The mesa is a hovering place waiting to rise
    pauses in its current shape
    a black stone flute
    or the squared off abstraction of a feather
    dwelling in the music of air

    and lowers itself in the absence of wind
    to draw maps
    in the thin layer of sand
    where lizards lie
    and roadrunners cross
    and men...