Читать книгу Americas: Selected Verse and Vignette - A. Robert Lee - Страница 18

Five Senses of California

i

Golden Gate Bridge

of

suspended

West

and

Pacific

Golden Gate Bridge

of

suspended

San Francisco

to Sausalito

twin tower

Golden Gate Bridge

of

suspended

orange-red

modernity

Golden Gate Bridge

of

suspended

steel

wire

cable

web

and

harp

Golden Gate Bridge

of

suspended

passenger

of

foot

or

car

or

last

jump

Golden Gate Bridge

of

your

own

suspended

fog

then

sun

California

eye

ii

Sproul Plaza 1960s Berkeley

of thronged free speech

war and peace

Vietnam Berzerkley voices

Sproul Plaza 1970s Berkeley

combatant Reagan-hate

Sproul Plaza 2000s Berkeley

and Iraq no

Dubya Must Go

Each and all by hallsteps

by beaux art Sather Gate

by surging Telegraph

and stately Bancroft

Each and all as the

Campanile sounds

its grand music of

Italy hourly songster chime

iii

Marin Headlands

to John Muir Woods

a horizontal ride

into vertical redwood haven

Sequoia stands of

height and dignity

Column lattices

of light and shadow

leaf and ray

Touch the fibrous bark

and touch the very skin and coat

of up and down natural time

iv

Mid-1960s first ever venture

into Pacific Time Zone

my first US car, Chevy II

Desert crossing

into San Fernando Valley

Summer teaching

under LA traffic

highway

emission clouds

With the intermission

of lemon and groves

next to the soap and powder factory

The day and night fruit scent

its own nose

its own cleansing perfume

its own perfect blended

California road cocktail

v

Taste Berkeley Alice Waters panisse

Taste Stockton Street Chinatown duck

Taste San Jose sushi

Taste Irish Frisco tater

Taste LA Afro-soul platter

Taste East Los burrito

Taste Truckee Donner flesh

Taste California

Taste history