A CLOSE READING OF BOB ROSE


READING BOB ROSE* AROUND THE CAMP FIRE

Living on islands Bob rose
the road outward as the road home,
initiated. Learning simplest things last.
Quiet voice around the fire
with blues harp and piano.
Crossing arms with a circle of men
in their 70s passing candles
I walk through those roses
of Lorca's family in Granada.
They greet me waiting for the taxi
that will take me to his fenced memorial.
I love Hannigan Pass, its sap boil
from the first shaman
machi curandero--did he read your urine?
Gratitude for the four twice four.

Pine sap bound him to the rock--
no mind no goal a partridge point.
Singing repetitions of songlines
dewey beach blackberries
dewey beach blackberries
digging in the sacred steam
answering the phone
it's ringing it's ringing
the baptism local                                                  

One time Karen and I
climbed the tree
and slept in Clifford Burke's tree house.
I carried my first broadside
locked in the chase
we printed copies at home for a month, practicing.
Make ready. Make ready. Tissue-thin shims.
It's beautiful, he said, but fix
that upside down o.

You missed the last ferry
but another one's coming
the practice is all
count on it the fire's burning

Jim
5-6 July 2019

*Bob Rose, handset the type to Living on Islands, and it was published in 1980 by Co-op Press in an edition of 300 copies. My reading of Bob Rose around the campfire is literal and factual, involving close textual reading and listening. jb

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