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