Sunday, October 21, 2012

Committing Accidental Poetry



Yesterday morning my old Shimer friend Teri Loeb casually wrote in a Facebook status entry,On my way home from Idaho. Didn’t realize that it was a real place. LOL” More than a little groggy from an overnight shift, I posted a reply.
Later, I looked at it and realized it was a poem in hiding.  Here it is, all dressed up in line breaks and poetic form without an altered word.
Accidental Idaho
Some of it is imaginary.
Break the crest of the Lolo trail
on one of the few summer days
when it is clear of snow
where Lewis and Clark labored heavily
over the Divide and look out over
the blue-green world by a wandering creek
and off in the distance you swear
you can see the smoke of a Nez Percé fire.
And in rustling wind you think you may dimly hear
the hoof beats of their Appaloosas
 
—Patrick Murfin



2 comments: