{"id":19113,"date":"2017-04-14T06:36:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T10:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=19113"},"modified":"2017-04-14T06:36:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T10:36:56","slug":"a-long-and-sweet-delicious-crack-of-wood-in-my-teeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/a-long-and-sweet-delicious-crack-of-wood-in-my-teeth\/","title":{"rendered":"“A Long and Sweet, Delicious Crack of Wood in My Teeth”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'064<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “064 – Day 5 Ayeyarwady River – A serene view of Ava Bridge<\/a>,” by Neville Wootton. Found on Flickr<\/a>, and used here under a Creative Commons license. (Thank you!) The image’s beauty is proportionate to its scale (click it to enlarge), but at any scale it seems an image of a place remembered, but never actually visited.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Theories of Time and Space<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can get there from here, though
\nthere’s no going home.<\/p>\n

Everywhere you go will be somewhere
\nyou’ve never been. Try this:<\/p>\n

head south on Mississippi 49, one-
\nby-one mile markers ticking off<\/p>\n

another minute of your life. Follow this
\nto its natural conclusion — dead end<\/p>\n

at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where
\nriggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches<\/p>\n

in a sky threatening rain. Cross over
\nthe man-made beach, 26 miles of sand<\/p>\n

dumped on a mangrove swamp — buried
\nterrain of the past. Bring only<\/p>\n

what you must carry — tome of memory
\nits random blank pages. On the dock<\/p>\n

where you board the boat for Ship Island,
\nsomeone will take your picture:<\/p>\n

the photograph — who you were —
\nwill be waiting when you return<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Natasha Trethewey [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Fetch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Go, bring back the worthless stick.
\n“Of memory<\/em>,” I almostimage added.
\nBut she wouldn’t understand, naturally.
\nThere is the word and the thing<\/p>\n

adhering. So far so good.
\nMetaphor, drawer of drafting tools —
\nspill it on the study floor, animal says,
\nthat we might at least see<\/p>\n

how an expensive ruler tastes.
\nYesterday I pissed and barked and ate
\nbecause that’s what waking means.
\nThus has God solved time<\/p>\n

for me — here, here. What you call
\nmemory is a long and sweet,
\ndelicious crack of wood in my teeth
\nI bring back and bring back and bring back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jeffrey Skinner [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a> (italicized lines):<\/p>\n

A Color of the Sky<\/strong><\/p>\n

Windy today and I feel less than brilliant,
\ndriving over the hills from work.
\nThere are the dark parts on the road
\nwhen you pass through clumps of wood<\/span>
\nand the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean,
\nbut that doesn’t make the road an allegory.<\/p>\n

I should call Marie and apologize
\nfor being so boring at dinner last night,
\nbut can I really promise not to be that way again?
\nAnd anyway, I’d rather watch the trees, tossing
\nin what certainly looks like sexual arousal.<\/p>\n

Otherwise it’s spring, and everything looks frail;
\nthe sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves
\nare full of infant chlorophyll,
\nthe very tint of inexperience.<\/p>\n

Last summer’s song is making a comeback on the radio,
\nand on the highway overpass,
\nthe only metaphysical vandal in America has written
\nMEMORY LOVES TIME
\nin big black spraypaint letters,<\/p>\n

which makes us wonder if Time loves Memory back.<\/p>\n

Last night I dreamed of X again.
\nShe’s like a stain on my subconscious sheets.
\nYears ago she penetrated me
\nbut though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,
\nI never got her out,
\nbut now I’m glad.<\/p>\n

What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.
\nWhat I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.
\nWhat I thought was an injustice
\nturned out to be a color of the sky.<\/p>\n

Outside the youth center, between the liquor store<\/em>
\n and the police station,<\/em>
\n a little dogwood tree is losing its mind;<\/em><\/p>\n

overflowing with blossomfoam,<\/em>
\n like a sudsy mug of beer;<\/em>
\n like a bride ripping off her clothes,<\/em><\/p>\n

dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds,<\/em><\/p>\n

so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.<\/em>
\n It’s been doing that all week:<\/em>
\n making beauty,<\/em>
\n and throwing it away,<\/em>
\n and making more.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Tony Hoagland [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “064 – Day 5 Ayeyarwady River – A serene view of Ava Bridge,” by Neville Wootton. Found on Flickr, and used here under a Creative Commons license. (Thank you!) The image’s beauty is proportionate to its scale (click it to enlarge), but at any scale it seems an image of a place remembered, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Trethewey, Skinner, Hoagland: casting time away, bringing it back, over and over ('\"A Long and Sweet, Delicious Crack of Wood in My Teeth\"'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,5,36,251,4159],"tags":[61,1019,2728,4322,4517],"class_list":{"0":"post-19113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-reading","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-essays","13":"tag-memory","14":"tag-time","15":"tag-tony-hoagland","16":"tag-natasha-trethewey","17":"tag-jeffrey-skinner","18":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ayeyarwadyriver_avabridge_nevillewootton_thumb.jpg?fit=640%2C193&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-4Yh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19113"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19122,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19113\/revisions\/19122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}