Friday, August 31, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 92 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 92

The land flat
but tilted.

The poet
tilted, too,

the way
you want.



Thursday, August 30, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 100 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 100

This road climbs.
Snow on that

mountain, a white,
bright shimmering.



Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 102 



from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 102

The world
doesn't know
we love it,

or why. Love
doesn't need
a reason.




Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Highways 70/380, Mile Marker 290 

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highways 70/380, Mile Marker 290

Here we are.
Four lanes to nowhere.



Monday, August 27, 2018

Highway 380, Mile Marker 90 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 380, Mile Marker 90

Sun is
everything

in these
mountains

and is
nothing.



Sunday, August 26, 2018

Highway 380, Mile Marker 62 Valley of Fire 

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 380, Mile Marker 62
Valley of Fire

Like Iceland
the land

out to the edge
of short grass.



Saturday, August 25, 2018

Highway 380, Mile Marker 55 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 380, Mile Marker 55

Who speaks here
for the spirits?

Who speaks
for coyote and

raven and hawk?


Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 303 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 303

Sky's friend, this
openness.



Tuesday, August 21, 2018

AUGUST ALREADY 


August already
acting like September.
The light,

I mean. And darkness
coming sooner.
The sharp

talk of the leaves
in hundred-year-old trees.
The stars

marking out their wisdom
as evening comes in.
The hum

of this universe,
an E-flat note we
can't hear.

How easily
we could lose ourselves
again.


Monday, August 20, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 296 

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 296

No one wants what everyone has.
Cattle eat the short grass and

this emptiness holds itself.



Friday, August 17, 2018

Highway 70, Crossing Eagle Creek 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Crossing Eagle Creek

The devil takes
what the devil

wants. Behind us
that which we

leave, shadows,
mountains.



Thursday, August 16, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 268 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 268

Raven

throws himself
off the mountain.

Down is his
only way out.



Wednesday, August 15, 2018

ALL THE GREAT 


All the great
things are small

flowers on
tender stalks.

The wind which
is no wind

shall move them.



Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 254 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 254

Oh, yes,
lift up
your eyes!

Again,
I say,
lift them!



Monday, August 13, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (69) 

GYPSY POET TOUR (69)

Missouri Highway

Death here
wears

an armadillo's
armour,

bird feathers,
a turtle's

shell. No one
slows for sorrow.



Sunday, August 12, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 247 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 247

Trees in these
mountains accept
the conditions.

You take your chances.



Saturday, August 11, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 251 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 251

White horse
against
red shed --

how much
depends
on this?



Friday, August 10, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 240 

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 240

Dead leaf

a monarch
butterfly

against
the guardrail.



Thursday, August 09, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (60) 


Shadows
like hands

scooping
up sun.


Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 236 

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 236

The snow-capped
peak playing
hide and seek.

One game or
another.



Tuesday, August 07, 2018

MOCKINGHEART INTERVIEW 

My interview with Clare Martin at Mockingheart Review about my month-long reading/writing tour of the western United States has just been posted:

https://mockingheartreview.com/2018/08/07/interview-with-a-poet-tom-montag/




Highway 70, Mile Marker 230 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 230

The weight of day,
these mountains.

The light shows us
its exhaustion.



Monday, August 06, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (55) 


Small vulture
at dead squirrel

on the road.
Mine, he says.

All mine!



Sunday, August 05, 2018

White Sands National Monument 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

White Sands National Monument

Of all your wonders,
Lord, this is the whitest.

Sand like salt, like soap,
like sugar in a dish.

What bears your
brightness shines here.



Saturday, August 04, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (53) 


The trees.
How they

hope. What
they know.



Friday, August 03, 2018

Highway 70, Alamogordo 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Alamogordo

You don't tell
the mountain's story.

The mountain tells it.



Thursday, August 02, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 3 


from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 3

The white
burn of

flatness
ahead.



Wednesday, August 01, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (50) 


What is compost?
you wonder. 

The world is compost.
The earth accepts

 what we abandon.
She takes it back.



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