rohnbayesjourney

city

sometimes a river
winds thru it like salome’s dance
the buildings rise on

the bank
city may be
a bridge a floating
jewell a flash an appetite

i’m in brisbane
thinking these thoughts
they call it city here
the city
a cell

a mojito
lights against the night sky
the river taxi crosses
rippled water

buddha the bottlenose dolphin
swims in during the summer
when the waters
are warm
this is explained in the menu

a girl walks along the pier with a lit cigarette

comanche peach pie

just north of the davis mountains in deep west texas on the edge of the chihuahuan desert
lies the spring fed pool of balmorhea
there is a state park there now and a park ranger at the entrance 
and a parking lot for your car
and a large stone building with concrete floors built for visitors who want to change into their swim suits
before diving into the crystal clear water

on the approach to the pool there is a historical plaque explaining
to any interested guests that before the US calvary built fort davis in the nearby mountains
and drove them off - the comanche used to plant peach trees here
in the sandy soil along the stream that emerges below the pool

i'm pretty sure they made peach pie too
maybe something baked in a stone oven fired with branches
from the cottonwood trees that grow near the pool and drop their heart shaped
leaves on everything

i have not tasted comanche peach pie but i can imagine being a comanche
living in this desert and tending my peach trees at balmorhea or whatever it was
called then and i would
have baked a peach pie and served it with coffee after dinner on
special occasions - a successful raid on a mission somewhere for example

i suspect the recipe has been lost now
after their eviction from the springs the peach pie passed into legend
and ceased to exist
i have been searching for it nonetheless with a hopeful and naive aspiration
in truck stops and likely looking restaurants
also inquiring of friends if they have the recipe
knowing that ofcourse they don't how could they ??

yet still believing that the secret of good comanche peach pie
might reemerge somehow - if beseeched properly - and be called back into
existence at a tea party somewhere with yerba mate
or strong coffee sweetened with agave nectar poured from
a clay bowl glazed and decorated with mountains and a stream
winding all the way down to the base where i hold it
in my hand

road trip

atlanta ft. lauderdale gainsville asheville
i'm on a road trip with a friend from houston
driving around in his cr-v he
used to roam mexico in the 70's in his
vw van up and down the coast i used to live on the beach
below akumal diving geeks on the reef 
we're older now and wealthy it seems to me
we're also much funnier mucha broma
i would say muy divertido in bob's excellent
spanish instead of waiting in the laundromat for
the clothes to dry we cruise over to harry's for
the best key lime pie in alachua county
and joked the waitress

today the party starts at 5
stop 3 on the tour
an old dive buddy from the yucatan is joining us
at phillips hall on the university of florida campus
with prem rawat the best party meister ever presiding
check out http://innerlink.typepad.com/connect/2007/07/an-exquisite-da.html  for the inside story

and curious now that i mention it
this trip around the north end of the gulf of mexico
having spent so many years on the south end
a party tour indeed with motels and ihops and the lovely
sweetwaterinn.com bed and breakfast where
we presently preside the frog in the pond and the giggling fountain
replacing van camping and the campfire lit beach beneath the palms

i gotta say something at this point
harry's has the best key lime pie i ever had
including that trip to key west the memory
fades and the best is now it always gets better

always come home
i feel the same

del corazon de quito

the city
surrounded by mountains
the airport like a knife thru the center
el panesillo the virgin looking down
the villages climbing the slope

i’m here for a conference
at teatro nacional
prem rawat el maestro
the bringer of surprise
and delight

bold design broad enterprise

i’m looking down from teleferrico
4100 meters high
the city below
the clouds in between
i freeze my ears and get sunburned

i’m searching for
el corazon de quito
and find two kids near the panecillo
one is shy one is ready to go
both like the camera
and look thru it
toma la autobus !!
toma la policia !!
toma la nina !!
i oblige

and the camera captures it
they are surprised

2 miles high
in the andean mountains

winter wonder land

wisconson

but the snow is melting

brown patches emerging on the hills of maiden rock

population 121

although tracy at the gypsy grille pointed out to me

the sign on the other end of town

says 145 so i don't know

but the subzero temperatures and eight foot high snow drifts

are sadly missing from my midwinter narnia fantasy adventure in

the winterwonderland along the mississippi river in upstate

wisconsin far from michigan where i started out after leaving texas

before i got this far but that was other adventures this is

my holiday season in the serene scenery of my fantasy childhood

day playing in the snow probly eight foot high snow drifts seemed like it

and howling wind and snot freezing weather

practically and i know it was fun cause i just can't find any rabbit tracks

up the hill behind helen's house who i'm visiting in maiden rock pop

121-145 but it's just like that hill almost that we slid down in newaygo behind the

parsonage flying down that holy hill was fast

as snot streaming out of my nose cheeks red water in my boots probaly

why was that so much fun ?? geeez i guess just

the winterwonderland of my childhood land of santa claus and reindeer

and narnia and baby jesus and no school days !! what a gift the time

of gifts and specialness and the midwinter solstice ancient traditional reason

for the season sun return darkest day and a cheer for joy that was it a

cheer for hope no doubt and running around in the woods putting lights on trees

whatever they did then when they were just celebrating winter solstice before

baby jesus was born on christmas day they were certainly up to something with

the trees in the big forest full of snow drifts high glittering soft petals falling

touching the cheek of a child walking thru the winter wonderland

downtown

                     

                           melbourne

after a twenty hour flight from texas to la to aukland to brisbane
to melbourne finally

arrived with a shoulder bag
and the clothes on my back

jetlagged and jettisoned accesories left behind in brisbane

something about an international dateline
and the last flight

i'm a day behind not ahead
. . . anyways i made it and

maharaji peace is possible at the arts centre
with 45 minutes
to spare

later

i found a hotel across the river

and spent 3 days exploring
melbourne

downtown 

the fringe festival 2005

and the grand finals aussie rules football game at federation square see pic

cybercafes and hidden streets

weird art

juice bars

and waitresses

and statue people

oddly european situations

a vibrant and lusty and beautiful city

and friendly and robust
 
and rainy too

i fell in love with melbourne
jetlagged and bedraggled

         is a great way to see a city

this week

i found myself on the campuses of universities in laredo and corpus christi in
search of the unalterable and innocent center of truth
it’s my job

i interviewed numerous professors and student luminaries on campus and in the cafes surrounding these institutions of higher learning

the conclusion of my investigation i shall publish now:  human beings (that’s us) hold the possibility of unlimited possibilities

actually it was more of an epiphany than a conclusion having descended upon me one morning walking down the corridor of bay hall

past doors of the professor people
that was wednesday and by midmorning something else had crystallized in my mind: the machinery of society and how it surrounds us and conspires to define in it’s own utilitarian terms our worth and station and purpose - this seemed to be in fact what was occupying most people i talked to

then just before lunch dr purdy worked me over punched a few holes in my evolving body of knowledge and patched a few leaks by the time i left her office i understood more that gee it was also this machine that gave us our canvas our context our tool to express this possibility

now the stage was set

i sat down for coffee at cafe calypso and watched the students lounging there feeling fairly satisfied with myself
unaware of course that the innocent and unalterable center of truth shimmering but also ephemeral had dodged my analysis lodged itself somewhere to the center of whatever i had concluded

and was gone ephipanal thrill and all

now it's night
the moon is riding high above
half price books
swept by shimmering clouds
linens and things and hobby lobby define the horizon
and the wifi connection i had a minute ago is strangely missing

that dang epiphany is a smudge on the rim of my mind
as i sit here writing of things past the two days left
in this week sit before me in kingsville and victoria
waiting behind doors not opened yet

ahh the cell phone camera
i’ll keep her charged and ready
the game is quick
and anything might happen next
the trick is the possibility and the real
both need to feel loved both are effervescent

i’ll start here

now click

vs emily

buddy's treehouse
vs
hurricane emily

xcacel beach vs hurricane emily

buddy
vs
jungle

rohn vs
buddy

monkee vs

bannana

and bird vs
hurricane

buddy walking on hurricaned beach

hurricane emily from the top of the treehouse

and that's my travelogue from yucatan

haven't been stinkier and sweatyer and more mosquito bit in
years planning subterfuge and battling organic forces with buddy

my old friend
in his jungle hideout cenote

did i mention the cenote

vs hurricane

miami beach

fresh back from miami beach

with pictures of
the beach

fancy hotels

sky

waves

buildings

a bird

with my new camera canon powershot S2 IS
12x zoom 5 megapixel chip it's so cool
the owner's manual is 185 pages long

i'm acutally looking forward to reading it must by my
inner geek coming out anyways this poem was written about
20 years ago
on a similar visit
to the same place
to see maharaji

after three days in the convention center
with a very unconventional person

   A long road runs along the beach and
this is where the sand is under the sun. 
Also in the sky are birds that are somewhere
between the water and the sand and people who
own the footsteps and wear sunglasses.  And
when the sky is like that large ships are to
be seen by the people on the beach and the line
on the edge.
   Sitting by a window one can see many
things.  There are spaces of blue or grey-blue
or white or pink (the buidings).  And the water waves
in the wind and the wind waves and the waves
laugh because it is so tight the way
a shore fits on a beach.

take a picture

 

flight 8675/55/379 scratch

being in toronto
has the distinct advantage
of being somewhere else not
the US but ofcourse it's cold

and the US is by all means
a very professional place so
described by one young indian lad
who aspired to go there
i spoke to

now i am thinking it is a
place where all aspirations
are professional and being a bum
is just being a bum unlike india
where you can be a sadhu

and be very respected while being
a bum hanging around on the street
panhandling with a tilak and a
tin pan

shaped like a milk container all
the sadhu bums had the same standard
milk container tin pan panhandling
container unless i'm mistaken and
it was a milk container

but i'm thinking when this flight
is over i'll be back in the US for
sure and not anywhere else and it
might be professional aspiration or a noble endeavor or it might
not to just be there
for awhile

without being there

because my tilak is gone
washed away or crumbled away before
we ever left delhi and what good
did it do me anyway i still had
to wait in line with all the others
until someone checked my documents
or scanned my bag or stamped a
piece of paper

i reckon the sadhu bums never have to
go thru all this but do they ever
really get to see a professional country
after all and what would that
mean

what does that mean

i really have no idea or maybe what it really means
is my brain has been riding around inside airplanes
for so long endless nights
in this nebulous twilight of being exactly in
a not being anywhere space that finding myself
in shortsleeves in toronto
sipping one more coffee and wide awake for
the sleeplessness of it
that i just noticed

not being anywhere for a long
enough time gets me in a
very timeless ness space where
it's about the same as being anywhere
for a long time
a sense of journeying without a
journeys end
or where should i move next
i should have said is what i met
some sweetner for my latte
this maybe tuesday
i love everybody

note:: Robert Creeley's obituary with poetry in the toronto globe
as well as the massive jet lag provided the inspiration for this bit of craziness

and to learn he breathed his last in odessa texas
leaves me defenseless