the dandelions in the picture below sit in the middle of a seventy acre field that was once max yasgur's farm in new york state. it was the location of the woodstock music and arts fair in 1969.
It is about eighty miles from our home and we visited last Sunday.
If you listen close enough you might hear this poem, or perhaps a much better one, lying on the ground:
i recall that weekend, all those
haphazard years ago, we thought
it would rain forever. there was a
neighbor's farm, up the dirt road
from yasgur's where the wind blew
an old gate open and closed with
calm regularity. we thought
togetherness was limitless.
the rain kept falling, the puddles
twitched with indifference and you
said, 'let's go see if we can find a
bathtub on a porch.' i was impossibly
needy and when you made up a phone
number, i thought, 'those are the numbers
i am afraid of when i sleep.' a counterfeit
daybreak wobbled across the sky and you
said goodbye without a trace.
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10 comments:
a counterfeit daybreak wobbled across the sky and you
said goodbye without a trace.
love these words. I have never been to woodstock,I was just a young teen back then, but remember seeing it on Tv, I think of the hippe look and how this helped change the history of rock and roll.
i can really sense emotion in your words, longing, sadness, a special moment to always treasure and remember.
well done ...
:-)
What a wonderful poem. I love the imagery, and the last line is amazing! Nice work:)
inky - thank you. The concert site is nothing special and incredibly magical. The year 1969 was an amazing time.
Jessie - thank you. I hope you laughed when she said let's. . . find a bathtub on a porch.
Angel - thank you. When we were there on Sunday, I sort of wished everyone who cared about the music could make the trip at least once.
Thanks all.
They did weird things in the Sixties. It was really a different era from the current one.
May - mostly, I think they tried to do things that did not have names yet. Thanks for the visit and the comment.
I never made it to Woodstock but I so wanted to be there. :)
I did visit the farm a few years ago and truly felt a sense of awe as I stood there. Your poem struck me and brought back those same feelings.
Lovely poem.
We don't do those things anymore.
Hi David...I'm all over the place with your posts---I'll eventually work my way through them... :o) Anyways, "...a bathtub on a porch." I like that...hopefully you found one and it was one of those old ones with claw feet. This is sad, especially that neediness.
Have you ever seen "The Sterile Cuckoo?" Needy, needy, needy...
Carletta - Thank you for your comment. There is a man, who went to the concert 40 years ago. . . and never left. He came from Texas and made it to Woodstock on Aug 15, 1969 and he's there still today. Did you meet him? Duke Devlin is his name. We talked to him when we were there last week. What a story! I have a picture I might post someday. He did leave the site, but got a job in the area and has become part of the legend. I wish you had made it there back then.
May - thank you for stopping by. it's harder to do things that don't have names yet. Since, mostly, they either did them and named them in the '60s. There is one other sign at woodstock that I might post as well. . . it says something like: no drinking, no smoking, no loud noises, no dogs, no walking on the grass, no camping. . . something like that. After you read it, you realize, yeah, we don't do those things anymore.
Holly - Thanks for the comment. Yes I'm on a posting marathon. I finally have enough confidence in the photos I've been taking to show a few to the world.
The area around yasgur's farm is very rural, kind of rustic, kind of not madison avenue. there are any number of bathtubs in the cow fields. . . finding one on a porch, with or without claw-feet, would have been amazing. I don't know why I write sad-ish stuff.
I've never seen 'the sterie cuckoo' one thing (of the many) that lacking in my education is film-going. I'll put that one on my. . . must see someday.
Thanks everyone!
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