The Knuckle We Need

MOUNTAIN MAN ON PATROL

 

--for Johnny Williams

 

He comes here to set his edges.

Set and release. Finding what falls

in the fall line is his work.

He falls and rises.

He finds there is no difference

between falling and rising.

The joy of this discovery

sets him apart, alone on the summit.

The current running through his body is joy.

He is a sled for all that gets broken

on the mountain. He lives on the summit

in the in-between place, a snow trail

opening snow trails.

 

Jim Bodeen

1 March 2008--9 February 2011

 

ANOTHER SKI STORY FROM WHITE PASS

for Chris Roberts

Somehow Chris heard my name and connected--

we wouldn't have recognized each other--
but we skied here together student and teacher
more than 35 years ago--when Tom Mullen

and Nelson Bentley put together the ski program

for the Alternative school in Yakima.

Chris Roberts helps us on the lift

and stories uncover themselves in snow.

Thank those teachers. Tom, Ben & Sue.

You guys took us everywhere--

We saw the play "Equus" in Seattle

with Leonard Nimoy. I ski now

with my sons and grandson at White Pass.

I learned so much. I'm going to have Devon

with me tomorrow. I remember too.

"Equus." Nude actors. Students. Naked flesh,

nakedness as metaphor. Family life.

Before the curtain came down, I wanted

to walk, practice better parenting.

Our school. We called it The Place. Find

another way. Christ went back

to the big school, graduating with straight A's.

I watch him ski with his grandson.

I bring him cookies for remembering.

Each Friday we skied White Pass.

We had two 15 passenger vans.

Nelson rented us skis for a buck a kid.

No charge for lift tickets.

We dressed ourselves from Good Will.

Spot us anywhere on the Mountain.

Cascading new ways to be,

skis carving tracks into frozen hearts.

Chris Roberts skis the mountain

he climbed then--why I ski White Pass now.

When Chris says, Thank those teachers,
he thanks Nelson, part mountain himself.

Jim Bodeen

7 February 2011

THE KNUCKLE  KIDS NEED

for Carl Poisel

Big Dog reaches down, gives a word

to the child on her skis

trying to walk the almost too slippery

last steps that get her to the lift--

Come on up here, he says,

lifting her over difficulty,

skis dangling, turning her,

saying, Stand straight, steadying

the moment of awkwardness

while waiting for the cable

holding the platter that will rest

between the buttocks, holding

skiers as the lift transports them

to the top. Steadying the child

with one arm, reaching for the cable

with the other, Big Dog pulls

the platter seat down adjusting

the height to the child. He gives her

one last knuckle, the knuckle of confidence

she needs, to keep her eyes up,

to keep skis straight over snow

while the lift pulls her up.

The hardest workers, these guys,

giving the knuckle we all need,

teaching children on snow.

Lifting, encouraging,

never giving up on the child.

Watching them come down, too,

when they finally get it, their joy,

at the end of the day.

How many hundreds of children

ski because Big Dog doesn't give up!

Jim Bodeen

5 February 2011