A Duwamish of the Mind

"A Duwamish of the mind "

- A place that we've caught glimpses of ...

Albeit, what i remember best
about growing up here in Seattle,
Is the taste of dirt
From the backyard garden,
That as a toddler i ate,
With sweetbitter glee,
And that hence came,
To inculcate me,
Along with the scent of saltwater,
Puget Sound, and the foghorns
of childhood fantasy...

"Seattle"

This romance…
This love
This Seattle.

Born on her hill
As was my mother
As was she...

And now
Her Ladyship,
Still too young
To dance with Chicago,
She dances with me
As old man New York sits
While I waltz
Flush with glee.

And later,
Not far from the Sunday Ballroom
Cathedral of her hills,
In the riverlands of the Duwamish,
I sweet sleep deep,
Craddled in the folds and holds
Of night harbor music
and the lyrical tapestry of her arms...


"The Two Best Poets
In Washington State Since 1889"

Win, place and show
The second best poet is silver
And this be poetical,
Upon myself bestow.

The gold is Richard Hugo,
My neighbor at West Seattle High,
A generation before me,
With forty years of overlap
Under the same Seattle Sky.

Indigene sons of Washington soil
Born, bred and begotten
Within the same Seattle mile,
Where tugboats would toil
And foghorns were heard,
With Liberty ships
Through the Ballard Locks
In single file.

We were the lads
In the Spring
Of Evergreen's history,
While the carpetbaggers
Of the poetry business,
Didn't arrive until the Fall.

Still, our Big Mountain
Is big hearted
And all are welcome -
Come one and come all!
Though one must remember
That Lady Rainier, you see,
Dances her best
With Richard and me,
And only the honor
Of her embrace
Can place bards and poets
Upon the high mantle
Of Northwest native grace.

So come ye troubadour and penman
And pay your homage and due,
To the land of Cascades and Olympia,
With lines, couplets and sonnets
And a chapbook or two,
As nimbus and karma,
And the aura and muse
Of poet Richard Hugo,
Place a blessing upon you.