MOUNTAIN REPORT

 

MOUNTAIN REPORT

                for Pastor Phil, Pastor Audrey, Doctor Karen, Physic’s daughter Gretchen,

                for walker Myron, 83, on the trail to the Fire Lookout, who asked the question

                        Unless the ecstasy be general.

                                Doctor William Carlos Williams

                                from The Mind’s Games

I belong to the North Dakota diaspora

of the 1950s--

        but we

were thrown out

        before

it all began--

and before the oil

            What is this diaspora?

Poets, pastors, physicians,

the physics student

the one

            who

    asks 

The poets      a feckless bunch

The pastors   a feeble bunch

            And then 

            others

            on this mountain, 

            walking

Jim Bodeen

10-12 July 2024