[stylist] Poem - "Boot Fantasia in Three Parts" - Finalist Draft

[Jackie Williams]

Bill,
You have given new meaning to "boots on the ground."
Sincerely, in spite of you having written this in '88, it is timely in every way to the current argument that having done it once, we should do it again.
Your last section also asked the vital question. Will we accept those back into our society, our homes, our hearts, who have worn those boots and return with just parts of themselves.
I did see Fantasia, and would like to see it again.  I do not make a direct association now with it, other than it was wonderful and moved between the fantastic images of many things.
My interpretation of your poem may be very lonely, but it jumped into my brain, and I could not turn loose. The second part was so strong also. Those who might want to wear such boots to counter-act what is going on in Iraq
The original description of the boots stirred my imagination . Then the boots came to life, and blew me away.
 

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 


-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L Houts via stylist
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 9:17 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Cc: William L Houts
Subject: [stylist] Poem - "Boot Fantasia in Three Parts" - Finalish Draft



Good Morning, Quillmasters and Quillmistresses,

Here's a poem I wrote way back in 1988.  I was doing these epic Poems 
About Everything, and one or two of my poems from this period still seem 
to have legs, from my unabashedly prejudiced view, of course. I haven't 
posted any of these poems anywhere in recent years, as I like to keep 
busy with new work rather than wallow in old bridal gowns, to coin a 
phrase, but it's almost my birthday, so I guess I'm dragging this one 
out for the occasion.

--Bill


---

Boot Fantasia in Three Parts

I.

There are boots in the desert.

The sun has eaten their laces.

The wind has taken their

high black polish.

In places, their soles are thin.

They stand under sand.

I think there’s more than

a pair of them sharing darkness

between those grains of earth,

darkness likeunderground sky.

I don’t know how or why the boots

arrived in the desert.

Maybe they fell from above.

It has happened before:

a torrent of stones

like shards of hard heaven,

a blizzard of toads on snoring towns.

The boots could come down,

a plague we never read about.

Some sad magician’s wonder

of boots from a cloud.

Or maybe the people who live

in the desert are prone

to losing their boots.

Riding strange horses

they come to rest at a shady oasis.

They might loosen their laces

And kick off their boots

to bathe and to drink:and drunk

on the clear dark wines

casked in such cellars of the earth,

they ride off again,

leaving their boots behind.

But never mind that.

These boots are all over the desert,

not just oases, and besides,

I’ve heard that people who

forget things do not survive

long in that place.

II.

It may not matter

where the boots came from.

It may only matter

that I want a pair myself,

boots as black as sharks

and twice as dangerous.

In a pair of boots,

a woman or man can

stride the wide world and

never feel the ambivalent

earth between their toes

A pair of black boots

can make fists of your feet;

their shiny heels

strike holes in the ground

with the sound of

clenched fists on a lecture stand.

III.

I have this notion

or dream of the boots

rising up from the desert

and crossing the ocean:

a parade of old shoes,

a triumph of tatters

through our city gates.

They make muttering noises,

as you might hear

a chorus of voices shouting

down a corridor of seventy or a thousand years.

I don’t know what words

the boots might speak, unless

with cracked black tongues they croak

the verbs which sound the same

in any language.

If the boots came to your door,

would you let them in?

If the boots entered your house,

wouldn’t you put them on?












-- 


"Oh, Sophie!  Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://writers.nfb.org/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/jackieleepoet%40cox.net