Enga mellom fjella

First blood

First blood

         for the unnamed

Night shrouds the stab of the knife
and snow deadens your cry
in the park below Higgin's bridge.
The Clark fork river flows by,
oblivious to pain. What's gained
in the flash of cold steel,
if not the anointment by blood
of this new year's first day,

We will read it tomorrow
in this small town's newspaper,
the story relegated to section B.
Your name won't be named
and no details will be forthcoming.
They'll never report whether hot words
were exchanged like arrows
and the silence of stained ice will not say.

Under the bridge, a new year's begun
even the snow not yet swept away.
This moment of first blood:
you in the hospital, yet no one to say
who you are, why it happened,
only that it happened here,
that it happened today.

© 2009 Kåre Enga [165.393] 2009-01-02

Our first stabbing of 2009 was on the other side of the bridge from where I live. I look out on Caras Park. What disturbs is the lack of follow-up by the newspaper. No word as to who nor why. Missoula is a small town in some ways. And downtown is a small town within that small town. People know each other and rarely does something happen that does not affect us.

blah BLAH sunshine BLAH blah SUNSHINE:

A mixed metaphor! It is sunny and bitter cold. So sunny it is difficult to see to type on the laptop.

Plenty of snow in the mountains, so the skiers will be happy ... if they can get there.

Last night at The Break I read poetry of Tarjei Vesaas out loud in Norwegian while glancing at the English translation. Once I understood the gist of the thought, it was important to feel the words in my mouth. Vesaas used his rural landscape to express the universal by relating the specific. His poetry is close to the natural intersection of Humanity and Nature, the truth that envelopes it. There is little if no dichotomy of worlds.

I wonder how his writing has influenced me in the past. I wonder how it will affect my writing in the future. One thing I know ... both of us rely on the senses and looking at life through other eyes, not just our own.

MILLSTONES and MILESTONES:

"First drum set"  has almost reached 100 reviews (96) and "Speak soft my name"  has over 800 views as well. In such manner are goals achieved: allowing the Muse to grab my pen and write; the hard work of editing while the Muse stands behind me muttering; the promotion that seems too much like a 'job' as the Muse sobs out a yawn begging me pick up the pen to give him his say (I prefer to allow him to have his own way).

One possible note of joy: when these each reach 1,000 views by 2010, they will have been read by more people than read many of the publications out there.

I'm still puttering around Blogville, gathering up strays I somehow missed ... I will have visited 100 by the end of the week end and dumped my poop like a moose.

Montana: 9º at 12:00

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