Hi Gary,
Tourism and its observance can be kind of surreal and I like the way this
comes out here. I like the second part best as it goes really crazy there.
Maybe a little more craziness in part one too. I don't think the tourist
should be allowed to show emotion and be upset, it introduces an early
sympathy which is at odds with the rest. Good stuff. I don't know Marvin
Bell. Sounds like a poet I'd like.
bw
James
>From: garydawg <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: The Tourist
>Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 10:26:45 -0700
>
>The Tourist
>(in the style of Marvin Bell's Dead Man)
>
>1. About Visiting Port Townsend
>
>The tourist drifts down Water Street
> past dead shops, wine shops, cheap leather shops.
>The tourist is upset the new age-mystical-any religion represented
> storefront is in flashy new quarters.
>The tourist prefers his crystals in the dark.
>The tourist moves past vanilla ice cream and gray pilings to Twigs,
> but Emily is again in London stealing uniforms off the Buckingham
> Palace guards.
>The tourist, hungry, looks across the marina to Otter's Crossing,
> full of tourists, the otters, having left for Chimicum, no longer
>cross.
>Tourists, the bane of the tourist.
>The tourist, cross, drifts off Water Street, west to Washington,
> where the scent of shavings, recycled oil, and dry books will assault
> his nostrils.
>The tourist, hungry, has lost his car.
>
>2. More About Visiting Port Townsend
>
>The tourist is hardly a tourist. He lives at Four Corners between
> otters and crossing, in a house once painted blue.
>The tourist's house is orange, or at least appears orange, or at least
> appears orange in the light of summer, when the tourists come.
>The tourists take pictures of the orange house. When the pictures are
> developed, the house is yellow or green depending on the light.
>The tourist thinks the tourists should pay for the pictures.
>But to collect, the tourist would have to stay home.
>But to collect, the tourist could not tour Port Townsend.
>But to collect, the tourists may ask the tourist questions
> about why bedposts are planted in the front yard,
> bicycle frames in the side,
> and strainers hang in the cedars in the back where the tourists
> can not see them.
>The tourist hates to answer questions, which is why when asked
> directions to Port Townsend, the tourist gives directions to
> Quilicene.
>The tourist needs to find his car.
>But to find his car, the tourist would have to ask questions.
>
>
>
>Homepage: http://gardawg.homestead.com/homestead.html,
>Submissions: http://www.writershood.com/index.html
>
>Poets for Peace. ˇPoemas sí, balas no!
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