Changing with LaPlumer

I sat down at my desktop a week ago after watching a Youtube video of Glen Campbell and Roy Clark combining for a virtuoso dueling guitars version of Ghost Riders in the Sky. Inspired by their collaboration, I had a first line. I sat down to see what would happen. I wrote the first line. I disappeared. When I became visible again, this had happened:

Unite and Divide

Ghost riders in disguise

On Camels in New Mexico

Brought here By Jefferson Davis

As Transcontinental Burden Beasts

Once upon the Pony Express

Twice Upon military dress

With no cameras for proof

Wandering through the Southwest

Unbreedable and aloof

Mr. Davis succeeded

The Dromedarys weren't needed.

The Riders rode North and South

Dressed in blue and gray

And playing those geetars

Through Stonewall winds

Under Cherokee stars.

I don't know what it is. Is it a poem? Is it a prosem? We have a writers group that meets at the Galway Hooker. Jacques La Plumer was a professor of literature at Dartmouth so he's regarded as the top pen in our group. His name is Jack but we all call him Jacques LaPlumer, a name he gave himself after some vivid piping misadventures because it sounds so dashing but in reality stands for Jack The Plumber.

It was a club day, so I arrived at the Hooker hoping someone would help me change Unite and Divide into something that might be more classifiable. Jacques and I were the first to arrive.

I showed Jacques the whatever above. He took a long look and then said;

"Jeff Davis, president of the Confederate States of America and Stonewall Jackson. Think about Abe Lincoln:. If I could preserve the Union without slavery I would and if I could preserve it with slavery I would. It's about preserving the union (in the north): it's about we ratified the constitution so we can ubratify it ( in the south) and it's about progression regardless of your allegiance below or above the Mason-Dixon. Much obliged.And re: unite and divide; my daddy just hung up on me. This piece is historic and anonymous, it is strict and aloof, point blank and random. Pick and choose to the preference of the reader."

He handed me back the copy. I thanked him for reading and responded; "Historic,point blank and aloof is quite a departure for me but it's not as random as one might think. It begins with a reference to the Pony Express which lasted only eighteen months and became superfluous with the completion of the Intercontinental Railroad all of which came at the expense of native Americans in the progress we labeled as manifest destiny. Jefferson Davis was instrumental in the construction of the railroad and even experimented with bringing a flock of camels as beasts of burden to aid in the railroad construction. I wondered what happened to the camels and the pony express. We know what happened to Jefferson Davis, he became the president of the Confederate states and thus a supporter of slavery. The idea of bringing camels over to the arid terrain seemed like a good idea at the time but they proved to be cantankerous and didn't get along with the burros and the horses and were soon superfluous. Most of the camels were sold to individuals but a few escaped and were rumored to be at large until the turn of the century and at least one was thought to be a legendary red ghost. Meanwhile, I imagined that the pony express riders joined various cavalrys during the civil war and at the conclusion of that war joined the war against the native Americans leading to Little Big Horn and the Trail of Tears. The transcontinental railroad was intended to unite the country at the same time that the country was dividing under the leadership of Mr. Davis. 150 years later we're still divided. Meanwhile the wonders of technology including the camera were being advanced."

Jacques nodded and responded; "West Like Lightning" is a great book about the Pony Express and Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy is the best about the war itself. Inspiration comes from all sorts of places and with all varieties of intentions. Hope sometimes that the ice in your rivers thaw a little, the current flows a little more."

Jacques had hit the nail on the head regarding my confusion with the definition and purpose of poetry itself. I tried to explain as he took another look at the original words.

"My "poetic" inspiration arrives, it shows up in a hurry and doesn't concern itself with thawing which is why I'm not a great poet but sometimes I get hold of an idea. Thanks for reading and paying attention. I hope your reading after hearing the genesis of my "poem" was a little different than before."

Jacques handed me back the copy. We ordered a couple of beers and then a couple more before Jacques returned to the subject of creativity.

"Nevermind the concern of your inspiration; mind your own. Different, yeah, you are imbedded in facts, the concrete, at least with this piece, you need to walk on gravel, if not grass You are already proven hard. I'd like to kick the dust around now and then, stroll a poetic path of loose pebbles. Then again, who the hell am I. Keep doing what you're doing how you like to do it."

Once again, I tried to explain

"A poem is often a collection of enigmatic facts that avoid linearity through universality and thus becomes a shortcut to ongoing collisions of past and present illuminated by beautiful sounding multi-syllabic words that contain double or triple meanings based on their placement with nouns as adjectives. I love the occasional rhyme. They come to me in a flash and I don't mess with them when they arrive and I can't send them back. I like this string of commentary and might turn it into a story if you don't mind…that's one way we could collaborate. Already, I regard you as a resource person."

Jacques laughed at the concept of "resource person". I continued:

"When it comes to "poems" or whatever Unite and Divide is, I get the first line I disappear for awhile and when I reappear something "new" exists on paper. Perhaps a bit of a thaw (like getting rid of articles and throwing in a gerund or two) might help the flow. Just for shitz and giggles why don't you take a crack at smoothing it out in the name of collaboration. I would be interested in that effort. Oh well, onward and upward is preferable to onward and sideways. Thanks again for your feedback."

Jacques grabbed a pen. He started composing and glancing over at the original. Ten minutes later, he showed me the thawed out version. I added a couple of words and the result is our collaboration as well as a story about the process of writing a poem.

Disguised they ride,
ghost riders high
on camels in the desert
among the sand and cacti.

Jeff Davis brought them,
the POTUS of the South,
to help build a railroad
across the continent
and Cherokee lost out;
their stars extinguished over
The Land of Enchantment,
their star shine depleted like
the Pony Express
because the ghost riders came in military dress.
Though their humped mounts didn't breed
still Jeff Davis did succeed.
Intermediary Dromedaries -
no rebellious need indeed

Other than to secede

Above and below the Mason-Dixon
did the riders spread;
ghosts of history
now dismounted and dead.
Once in blue or grey,
now scattered,
gone away.
Scattered to the wind that blows through a Stonewall;
we ask now for proof of this all
for there is no snapshot of this
unification and division;
yet the ghost riders still ride with
a cadence and rhythm
if a geetar be strummed in the dry,
arid Custer season;
dismounted and dead,
camels aloof and unbred.
Undisguised, forever ghosts,
camels and New Mexico and
railroads and war;
the Express scattered;
history, like camels, aloof
and unbred.

We downed a couple more brews as the regulars began to trickle into the hooker. Something else existed.