Please join us at Hickory Museum of Art this Saturday, June 20 at 2 pm as we tour current artworks and explore ekphrastic poetry with Art of Poetry. It is free and open to the public.
“Log yard in Appalachia, 1940’s” photograph for Earl Goodboe, photographer unknown
Kelly DeMaegd
Earl From Terrabone
after “Logyard in Appalachia, 1940’s” by Unknown Photographer
for Earl Goodboe 1899-1980
He suffered his entire life from epiphora,
an affliction that produces an overflow
of tears; crying, constantly crying. Ruddy
six-fingered lumber camp roughs relished
making him the whistle punk. He showed them.
Sixteen, strong, lean, commanding a team
of horses and a cross-cut saw, logged
the giant, pitchy ponderosa pine
of the Bitterroot range. Learned the trade
from his father, river driver, jam crew
member, running log-to-log on the Ottawa
all the way to Quebec. Grandpa Earl hauled
107 pounds of saw through Lolo meadows
in waist deep snow. Destruction gnawed
at him. He argued in English, French,
Norwegian, against the evils of clear-
cutting, advocated selective logging,
well before its time. Gentle man
among roustabouts, Rocky Mountain
topography etched on his face, ravines,
ridges heaved and carved by two
blue lakes, continuously flooding.
Kelly DeMaegd reads her work at the March 20, 2015 Art of Poetry event at Hickory Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of Roger and Ginny Sanford.
Kelly, I love the poem and feel as if I know Earl and could paint him from your words. Is that double ekphrastic?
“Two blue lakes,/continuously flooding.” A wonderful poem all around; excellent details (whistle punk, etc.) A marvel.
Love this poem. I can see it all!!