My home! (For 35 years or so.) I was close to crying; if you'd mentioned one more thing -- anything
having to do with apples for instance -- I would have collapsed. Everything you mentioned, even
the 'spider-lightning', pulled up memories. Now I'm homesick. I hope you're happy. Thanks for the poem.
Extraneous details:
I used to live a 1/4 mile above route 7 about 15 miles west of Washington, D.C. I regularly took
route 7 through Leesburg and headed up route 9 to visit friends in Mechanicsville. I usually started
out after work Friday and drove back late Sunday evening. I spent many beautiful sunsets and nights
driving that road. My friends had an old wooden dory that they'd brought down when they moved from
Maine (of course) and we used to put it in the Shenandoah at Millville, take it past Harper's Ferry, and
pull it out of the Potomac at Sandy Hook.
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions
Hi Mark,
overall very nice and although all of these are unfamiliar scenes, I feel that they still manage to relate and speak to me so job well done.
I know this is not a crit / comment section as such, but did wonder what a funnel cake was (we have fennel cake in UK so did wonder if it was a typoequally could be a regional cake thing. Just interested as much as anything)
The only stumble for me was I felt like I wanted a further commar after this the road on the first line.
Thanks for posting really enjoyed the read. The last couplet in particular was class. Highly evocotive and is easily accesable to anyone / anywhere.
Hey Ray-
I won't mention apples, especially not the BIG RED APPLE at Winchester....
Your SPOILER was spot on, of course. I've been through every nook and cranny of the entire Harpers Ferry area (fishin). Too many stories to tell, so I condensed it down to this one "musical piece" in an attempt to convey some of the magic.
I've parked at Sandy Hook many times, then crossed the RR tracks to wade the Potomac. The confluence at Harpers Ferry is worth every visit, even the one when I had to yank my (then 6 yr old) son out of a strong current that he fell in to. He's 24 now, and a way better fisherman than me now (dang it).
Yeah, the Millville put-in is a great ride down the Shenny to the 340 bridge & Sandy Hook. In fact, that's very near to where I got busted without a WVA fishin license. Dumb me thought the other bank was VA, but it's still WVA. The ranger let me go, since I had a valid VA license, but the "reciprocity rule" ain't technically in effect until much closer to the 340 bridge.
I could go on and on and on...
I was just out that way a couple weeks ago visiting my brother in Martinsburg. I have a definite ethereal connection to that part of VA/WVA/MD: the images are indelible in my mind's eye, and the pulsing positive vibes remain very strong in my heart. There's just something about "it".
Let's see, 15 miles west of DC, 1/4 mile off of Rt 7-- did you live near Wolf Trap?
Anywho, enough is too much....
... Mark
Hey AJ-
Funnel cakes are those fluffy crepe sort of things that I always choke on because of the confectioners sugar put on them.
Sorry about the missing comma, but I've gotten "comma shy" after being told way too many times that I "over-comma". A previous version actually did have a comma at the spot you mention. Please imagine the comma is still there, if that'll help.
That last couplet was the only possible way to put it, as that winding drive, start to finish, can be sublime on certain summer evenings....
mmm, I go to Harpers Ferry two to three times a summer, went just last weekend. stayed in Antietam... nice place.
as far as this peice, I would consider an edit to stanza 4, as it is a bit too dark for the rest of the light poem.
I personally find driving around harpers ferry at night to be a harrowing experience. It's pitch black with narrow roads and no gaurd rails.
Mark : "I won't mention apples, especially not the BIG RED APPLE at Winchester."
:'-( Ha ha
Mark: "Let's see, 15 miles west of DC, 1/4 mile off of Rt 7-- did you live near Wolf Trap?"
Sort of. The mileages were very approximate. I lived on Millwood Ln. in Great Falls, Virginia.
Difficult Run ran through the tip of my property. Up there it's about 20 feet wide, if that.
The stream had undermined an old sycamore, which fell across the run and made a
convenient bridge to the other side of my property. I used to sit on that sycamore and drop
a fishing line, no poll needed, into the run. I caught white perch, sunfish, and every once in
a while a very small bass. Captain Hickory Run ran into difficult run about 300 yards upstream.
I once thought I caught a brook trout there, but everyone said that was impossible. About a year
later, I happen to ask a Great Falls Park Ranger about it and he said there used to be brook trout
in the small tributaries of Difficult Run. Hopefully they're still there, as I only use barbless hooks
and always thrown them back in.
Yes, truly a wondrous place.
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions
Hi Mark, lovely read, hit all the senses with an extra dose of ecstasy of the moment. Click and clitter was a bit much for me but I guess so is that overwhelming sound on an August evening.
I think I'd prefer the last line as
summer blurs the distance between leaving and arriving.
Mark : "I won't mention apples, especially not the BIG RED APPLE at Winchester."
:'-( Ha ha
Mark: "Let's see, 15 miles west of DC, 1/4 mile off of Rt 7-- did you live near Wolf Trap?"
Sort of. The mileages were very approximate. I lived on Millwood Ln. in Great Falls, Virginia.
Difficult Run ran through the tip of my property. Up there it's about 20 feet wide, if that.
The stream had undermined an old sycamore, which fell across the run and made a
convenient bridge to the other side of my property. I used to sit on that sycamore and drop
a fishing line, no poll needed, into the run. I caught white perch, sunfish, and every once in
a while a very small bass. Captain Hickory Run ran into difficult run about 300 yards upstream.
I once thought I caught a brook trout there, but everyone said that was impossible. About a year
later, I happen to ask a Great Falls Park Ranger about it and he said there used to be brook trout
in the small tributaries of Difficult Run. Hopefully they're still there, as I only use barbless hooks
and always thrown them back in.
Yes, truly a wondrous place.
chat:
ha, I imagine that household had to watch for loose hooks tumbling from every pocket into the laundry.
Just took the inland Shenandoah range run, a breeze of a drive, away from the coastal mayhem.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips
You are right about the last line and I originally did use "between" instead of "from". The reason I changed to "from" was to maintain the syllabic count at 14 per line.
The only good thing about my OCD is that I'll never kill myself, because I'd never be able to decide on the precise details of how to do it.
To hell with my syllabic compulsion, I'm going back to "between", because that subtle difference is more important than maintaining "a count".
Thanks again,
... Mark
PS-- Now I'll need a 7-step group for poets with obsessive syllabic disorder. I think that 12 steps is 5 too many, and 7 just seems like exactly enough to me.... ;-)
Hey Ray: I used to swim at Black Pond all the time in my well spent youth. My son still goes there. When he says "I'm going to Difficult", I know exactly what he means... Too many people there now for me. In my day, in the early '70s, it was a great skinny dippin spot, esp with that cool jumping off "cliff".
(09-01-2015, 08:53 PM)ellajam Wrote: Hi Mark, lovely read, hit all the senses with an extra dose of ecstasy of the moment. Click and clitter was a bit much for me but I guess so is that overwhelming sound on an August evening.
I think I'd prefer the last line as
summer blurs the distance between leaving and arriving.
Mark : "I won't mention apples, especially not the BIG RED APPLE at Winchester."
:'-( Ha ha
Mark: "Let's see, 15 miles west of DC, 1/4 mile off of Rt 7-- did you live near Wolf Trap?"
Sort of. The mileages were very approximate. I lived on Millwood Ln. in Great Falls, Virginia.
Difficult Run ran through the tip of my property. Up there it's about 20 feet wide, if that.
The stream had undermined an old sycamore, which fell across the run and made a
convenient bridge to the other side of my property. I used to sit on that sycamore and drop
a fishing line, no poll needed, into the run. I caught white perch, sunfish, and every once in
a while a very small bass. Captain Hickory Run ran into difficult run about 300 yards upstream.
I once thought I caught a brook trout there, but everyone said that was impossible. About a year
later, I happen to ask a Great Falls Park Ranger about it and he said there used to be brook trout
in the small tributaries of Difficult Run. Hopefully they're still there, as I only use barbless hooks
and always thrown them back in.
Yes, truly a wondrous place.
chat:
ha, I imagine that household had to watch for loose hooks tumbling from every pocket into the laundry.
Just took the inland Shenandoah range run, a breeze of a drive, away from the coastal mayhem.
Hey Q D-
Like you say, it can be a harrowing experience driving around that area toward twilight and at night.
To me, those minor, menacing touches add very much to the magic of the place.
And that is precisely why the 4th stanza must stay, my friend.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
... Mark
(09-01-2015, 02:11 PM)Qdeathstar Wrote: mmm, I go to Harpers Ferry two to three times a summer, went just last weekend. stayed in Antietam... nice place.
as far as this peice, I would consider an edit to stanza 4, as it is a bit too dark for the rest of the light poem.
I personally find driving around harpers ferry at night to be a harrowing experience. It's pitch black with narrow roads and no gaurd rails.
Ha, Mark, that's why I dropped the opening "as" on that line, didn't want to make you twitch and all.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips
Like you say, it can be a harrowing experience driving around that area toward twilight and at night.
To me, those minor, menacing touches add very much to the magic of the place.
And that is precisely why the 4th stanza must stay, my friend.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
... Mark
(09-01-2015, 02:11 PM)Qdeathstar Wrote: mmm, I go to Harpers Ferry two to three times a summer, went just last weekend. stayed in Antietam... nice place.
as far as this peice, I would consider an edit to stanza 4, as it is a bit too dark for the rest of the light poem.
I personally find driving around harpers ferry at night to be a harrowing experience. It's pitch black with narrow roads and no gaurd rails.
I hear you, I guess that line kind of reminded of the dangerous roads... So it works.
Damn, I love VA.
I'm a Fauquier resident so I know the country road experience well, both winding and straight-aways. You usually find the latter along stretches of black angus pasture, and then you find yourself going almost 60 on a 45. Horse and wine country, it's a beautiful thing.
Though I can actually hear the crickets as I'm typing this, you still put them in my head. Good read.
Funny how many comments are coming from people familiar with, or even from, this area. We've probably passed along the road and didn't even know it. Honk next time, would ya? (not a "city-leaner-honk", but one of the "friendly-country-tapper" kind.)
And for sure, the Virginia foothills are sublime... when I "go", my consciousness is destined to flicker like spider-lightning above 'em...
... Mark
(09-02-2015, 04:54 PM)Cousin Kil Wrote: Damn, I love VA.
I'm a Fauquier resident so I know the country road experience well, both winding and straight-aways. You usually find the latter along stretches of black angus pasture, and then you find yourself going almost 60 on a 45. Horse and wine country, it's a beautiful thing.
Though I can actually hear the crickets as I'm typing this, you still put them in my head. Good read.
