Joining The Walls
That is what's happening in the photo, and that's what's happening in the poem.
Two things, in the poems case two people, are becoming one thing, and then
becoming part of something larger. Hopefully the Adam and Eve metaphor is clear,
in that Adam chose the love of Eve, before God's favor.
The poem agrees with Adam's choice.
Let There Be Light
The photo was taken at 7 am and the poem and
the photo are actually from the same moment in
time, the morning of the first day you start
building. The carpenter in the photo is snapping
lines on the foundation so they can begin to build
the house that will rest there. In that house people
will live and die, families will move in and out,
break apart, or live happily, histories will be made.
So the biblical references to the beginning of the
world seemed appropriate, as here the carpenters are
creating a home, which becomes a world.
The Brakes On The Train
This is a case where reality and metaphor went together in a number of ways.
These really are the brakes on a train, and I took the photograph when I was
on the train to Chicago, just about 10 years ago, on the way to see my
Uncle who was dying of Cancer. The train seemed like a good metaphor for life,
something larger than ourselves that we are not entirely in control of, that we
share with other people. One day the train stops, we die, and we all have to get off.
The Hammer's Voice
I started framing houses in 1988 in Michigan. Then we actually used real
hammers, rarely nail guns and compressors and such. You often evaluated a
fellow carpenter by what kind of hammer he had, and how well he could swing
it. Experienced carpenters drive a 16 d with 3 or 4 strikes of the nail,
two taps two swings.
We'd spend all day bent over nailing like that, and it frees your
mind to contemplate things, the nailing becomes almost automatic, and
the hammer becomes part of you. A lot of the work in this book is based
and founded in that mind set, where your body is doing something it
knows and your mind is free to go deeper. It is that mind set that
A Carpenter's Songs came from.
I wanted the poem not just to be about the carpenter's father and
him, but also about that special relationship between a carpenter
and his hammer. how it becomes a part of you.
Flying Around The Sun
Last year I framed an apartment building in the winter, and when
I got back up on the joists, I was afraid. When I was younger,
gravity seemed more "optional" and falling didn't seem that likely.
Now I realize that gravity works, and can have real consequences.
This poem and photo are about the up side of the mixed blessing of
being a man. We can do insanely dangerous things as an act of will,
simply because someone tells us to. Walking trusses entails standing
two or three stories up, balancing on 3 1/2 " of wood, and walking
along the 3 1/2" (smaller than the Olympic balance beam) while
carrying a truss with 10 pounds of tools and nails on your waist,
and all without a safety net. It is one of the most wonderful and
empowering experiences I've had, and it's not about being fear-LESS,
it's about being fear- FULL and doing it anyway. It can be a
wonderful thing to do something that dangerous as an act of will,
simply because you're told to, it can also be not such a wonderful
thing, like when we are told to go to war.
Again, the poem deals with the upside of that equation.
Hope
I thought about trees, and they are sort of perfect.
Consistent loyal, beautiful. They are wonderful things.
My father used to say "In my next life I want to be an Oak
tree." I wish that for him. The character in the poem
is depressed, and he needs the tree, he needs hope.
Untitled I
This joining of this photo and poem. "The
Problem With Expensive China", some have taken issue with, and
questioned me re misogyny. The poem is about things that we covet
because they are too beautiful, maybe inhumanly beautiful, where
beauty, physical beauty is all that seems important. That is
liability for both the speaker of the poem who covets, as well as the
object of his desire. The theme has a resonance I hope for both genders, in
desiring and/or desiring to be like an object. Then again the poem is
about a bowl...
Branch
This photo is from the Salt Flats is Utah, and has
nothing to do with carpenters, but I loved the image,
and the print is also available in a number of sizes, and already framed.
Untitled II
This photo again is from the Salt Flats in Utah.
Along the highway people will take stones and lay
them out to spell their names. The heart was under
"Nancy + David = TLA" ( True Love Always).
In the lifelessness of the salt flats, to have
an expression of undying love seemed wonderfully
ironic and powerful. Of all the places to find a
love letter written in stones, off the highway in
the Salt Flats.
The metaphor goes a step farther, as the heart
is hollow and nothing near it is alive, and in the
poem, at that point in the relationship, only the
shell of love is left, and that's all that remains.
So, this seemed like the perfect photo for the poem.
Growing Anyway
This single cactus stands near the southern entrance of
Death Valley. It's not used in the book, but maybe should be
considering the title. Death Valley is one of the most
beautiful places I've ever been, I recommend at least
one journey there in every life time.
(There are several sizes and quality ranges of this print available.)
7 years
I didn't drink for many years, and then in 1995
when I started work in Stevens Point, I started drinking
again. Many people have said "Who can blame you for starting
to drink in Stevens Point?" I'm told it does have one of the
highest bar per capita rations in the US. Anyway I continued
to drink for seven years, and looking back at that time, I
wasted a lot of it in the bottle and the bar, and in hindsight,
slowly, gradually became someone I never wanted to be. The
metaphor of marriage, "7 years," seemed appropriate
in regards to the bottle.
I found the bottle in the Salt Flats near the border
of Utah. My guess is it's there still. The empty bottle
on empty flat salt, seemed incisive as a
metaphor of the wasted time and lives
in the poem Blue Collar Bar.
Canyon In The Panhandle
This photograph has no earthly business being in the
collection other than I took the photo and I like the image. It's
the stream from the second largest canyon in the United States, near
Childress, Texas.
The flatlands are in fact INFINITELY flat. There came a point in the
flatlands on the motorcycle tour I was doing around the country,
where I was actually grateful to cross a set of railroad tracks, or
see a cow 1000 yards away. That's how desolate the flatlands are.
So it seemed important to capture this beauty in that context. There
are several sizes of this print available.
Framing Hammer
Charcoal and conte on newsprint
The whole beauty of a hammer is that it explains itself.
Finding and Losing
Charcoal and conte on newsprint
Speed squares, tape measures, chalk lines and pencils.
I don't know what it is about being a carpenter, but when
you get in the middle of something you always misplace
one of these specific (^^!) tools. The title
of the drawing and image, follow the themes of the chapter,
as finding and losing is about finding and losing love,
and also losing loved ones as a result of death, instead of choice.