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"I didn't know I was an Appalachian until the Appalachian Regional Commission came along and told us all that we were....I think people who've lived in the mountains have always felt some separateness. I think people identify more with their state and with being from the mountains. I always grew up saying I was from North Georgia -- and making it very clear that it was North Georgia. People used terms like 'mountain people' and 'highlanders,' based on all the Scottish ancestry." -- Helen Lewis, professor, author, lecturer, and incoming president of the Appalachian Studies Association, quoted in CASS' Now & Then.
Graphic: Cherokee Creation Myth, oil on corrugated board by Gary Carden
Triage
by Harold Janzen
Harold Janzen is a poet, a wilderness lover, and an afficiando of trains. His poetry and bio have been published previously in A Country Rag at Verse to Music, Verse to Music II, and Gloria!.
WORDS FLOW
i.
words flow
stream along
from
one stone to another
course of things
to get meandering
this place is singing
clouds divide and mingle
a single bird
sings
the unseen calling
a wilderness of language
a countless rippling silver
water
ii.
a signal passed tells of the strolling
tiny animals scatter
and meaning shelters
one cloud
connects with the canopy of leaves
wind releasing
a shower of drops
and things drip
in the
glistening
sunlight
POOLS AND RIFFLES
over smooth stones
colliding with rocks
with itself
a watercourse
swirls and gurgles
a stream over riffles
breathing in pools of
comfortable fish
meandering thru a corridor
of trees and shrubs
herbaceous plants and grasses
riparian vegetation
a natural filter
caressing and reflecting
pools and riffles
the prairie pacific
smooth song of
fragile wishes
repairing the distance
wind ripples
and rushes
the long arm of a green ash
twigs stretched
and leaf touching
the mirror
THE TRAIN
i.
the train hauling passengers
over saskatchewan's freight grain
expressionism
night bound
wound up cruising 75
slowing down around corners
an hour idling
at an elevator
avoiding the head-on
wow!
four amtrac
train buff salesmen
unloading their nasal narrative
informative racket
hornsound at every crossing
and a one-way ticket holder
sitting listening silently
to their romantic drawl
while rambling thru his recollected
notes of animistic trackings
rewriting
the trickster's
chapter
mid sentence
"...sighting coyote from trains
over agricultural tracts
of land
thru mountain
passes
& forests primeval
the long silence after caboose..."
looking up he thinks of being
the poet quote
of a thousand train poems
famous from portland to maine
on the cover of train magazine
a train poet's dream
it's 48
seconds between markers
overhearing the number wondering
horses racing on the flat terrain
or steel wheels
mimicking the gallop
calgary to winnipeg
the americans toasting tall
highballs last ride
coast to coast canada
them shoveling loud coal
into any listener's lap
collecting schedules
comparing facts and figures
consuming history with gray-haired
conductors
signing petitions
protecting long
refrains
in their train song rap
ii.
later time's braking to a stop
by an unknown station
waking with a start
to the quiet slow motion
the poet shifts to uncrumple
the cramps
from sleeping the wrong way
in the smoking car's stale breath
and sock combo seats
hungry from avoiding the meals
and the deal
he remembers the offer
a conductor baying
extra bunks
20 bucks
one of those amtrac boys
snoring
a long wheezing
caa boozzze
Graphic: Herb garden with small sculpture set on stone, Karcher Stonecarving Studio & Gallery, Sylva NC
Native Appalachian book note:
Palari Publishing of Richmond (www.palari.net)
has recently released
We're Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their
Stories, (ISBN: 1-928662-01-3, $14.95). Barry Bass,
chief of the Nansemond tribe, says,
"This book is very interesting - I couldn't put it down. It is very well put
together, and it gives people an insight into who the current Virginia Indian
people are." Pauline Mitchell, Secretary of the Henricus Historical Foundation,
comments:
"Every public library in the Commonwealth of Virginia and every school
library should have a copy of We're Still Here by Sandra F. Waugaman and
Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, Ph.D. Not only does it present a historical view
of our indigenous Virginia Indians, but in their own words describes their
feelings, their lives and their places in Virginia today. It is a thoughtful
and moving narrative, sometimes sad, usually enlightening, but always clearly
showing the 'indelible thread of red in the tapestry of the American people.'
This small book, carefully researched, documented and illustrated, should be
required reading for every teacher of Virginia history."
 Table of Contents
Word Preserve
text ©Harold Janzen; graphics ©Jeannette Harris, December 2000.
All rights reserved.
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