Parochial Woodpecker / Columbus Poem

Just for the record, and yes I’m embarrassed to say so, but I had never heard of Jonathan until March of last year. Yes, I admit it, I’m, dare I say it, parochial. And since I’m admitting to my intellectual faults here, yes, OK, I still haven’t heard of Ron Silliman. Someone in the SOQ must have made that one up, right?

By the way, are they drinking from the same Kool-Aid template? Something's happening and I don't know what it is, do I Mr. Jones?

Anyways, oh, one other thing, I learned from Anny that the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker still lives! Now there’s a name I’m truly embarrassed not to have known. (More info here thanks to Mark.)

Speaking of things I didn’t know. It appears that Son Rivers is on a roll and has decided to release an EP. In a press release, he speaks of the third song in that soon-to-be-released EP, tentatively titled, ‘Just for the Effing Fun of It Again’. “This third one is an acoustic adventure, more subdued than the effing forsythia poem. But, believe me, when played live, the curtain opens after the last line, and Neil Young, Eric Clapton, and the ghost of Jimi Hendrix jam for easily an hour. Electric man! That space at the end of the poem effing rocks.”

Without further ado, download amongst yourself:

Postmodern Genesis: Columbus Creates America

A work crew is landscaping the grounds
of that new aluminum and glass
construction in the Old Columbus
industrial park, assembling gardens
with cedar mulch, imported boulders,
and low-growing shrubbery.
The sun is out and they feel like gods.

Tomorrow they’ll place a running brook,
native adaptive perennial
wildflowers, and buffalo grass.
It’ll almost seem like a new world
underneath white contrails in the sky,
as a crew member sings out loudly
“Let’s plant the lights and electrify!”

~Son Rivers 2005

Listen, you can hear the effing guitars man. Look out for the flames Jimi!