Damascus Steel

The ancient metallurgic art of hammering two different metals to a point of molecular alignment that creates remarkable strength and beauty is the metaphor for this examination of the communication between lovers to form a strong union.

The process created an intricate texture that became known as Damask.

Here is a film about Samurai Swordmaking, though not specifically Damascus Steel it illustrates the complexity and craft involved

For Further information:

Wikipedia

New York Times Article Sept, 29, 1981

The Drive Home

Sometimes the night feels good.






I infused phrases from this Cole Porter Classic into the early stanzas of this poem.

The Owl's Run

On the death of photographer, O.Winston Link

(12/16/1914 - 1/30/2001)

I had the pleasure of meeting "Link" on several occasions through my friend Judith Lawne. Link was a master photographer who not only made photographs that had perfect understanding of dark and light in balance and composition, but created that light itself, painting the locations he photographed with extensive amounts of single fire flashbulbs. His work with Steam Locomotives was not only exacting and complex to a point inconceivable to the layman but required exact planning and execution as his subjects were on their own schedule allowing him but a single opportunity for only one shot.

I remember him quipping that Ansel Adams had the luxury of sitting on a mountaintop to wait for the perfect conditions to take as many shots as needed before losing the light, needing nothing more than the sense to notice it when it presented itself. Whereas Link had to speculate on where to place light and how much to create the mood and setting while composing the scene in such a way to keep his light sources hidden from view and for only one take. 

The perfect example of this can be seen in the shot below where he lit an entire street from off camera vantage points. The wiring of the flashes required him to be in the shot. You can see him standing to the side on the street actually in the act of taking the picture. A rather elaborate, if subtle self portrait. Not only does he control the shadow and light of the entire street, but sculpts the steam plume from the train with his flashes. All in time to catch the train when its front end passes the narrow opening at the end of the street as it speeds past on it's regular run. No, that train is not sitting there waiting for him to be ready.

Here are several images referred to in my poem:

Flash bulb fired iron rolls into the night.

The train rumbles down Main Street.

Across back yard porches, 

living rooms.

Workers sit by stoves, 

past the club house pool,

Drive-in lovers drown in steam and steel.

Over the bridge past the far crossing.

midnight cows receive the behemoth

Link on left with his assistant and some of his equipment.

For more information:

Bio on Wikipedia

O. Winston Link Museum

Winter Harbor, Maine

Winter Harbor, Maine

Page 30

Here are the photographs that inspired this poem about a day during a family visit in Maine. 

"mist surrounds us. Spruce and jack pine recede behind / the weathered air..."

"volcanic dikes that divide the stumbled granite leviathans / fractured millions of years ago, lava filled their cracks black / bound them apart"

"...basalt dikes, crushed by the granite / they divided, crumble into steps that span / old fissures..."

"...She will not pose for me / for me she will clown and gawk..."

"...one arm raised higher than the other / like a ship’s signalman in need of flags..."

Home

Welcome to home of my collection of poetry "From A Mongrel Poet". In this blog I intend to share images, insights, and background information on many of the poems included in my book. In time I hope to have created an informative and entertaining companion resource for the collection. As I address individual poems I will place their posts in a tab for the section of the book in which they appear. I don't want to waste your time searching through empty pages so I will only create section tabs as I make content available. 

I hope to make this an organic process and will no doubt be adding more, in depth information to existing entries as new information is found. Though I will quote lines from poems to act as captions and to identify what a link or lexicon entry refers to, I will not be posting complete poems here at this time. As stated above, this is meant as a companion piece to the book, not a web publication of the work therein. 

This site in no way is meant to "explain" the poems in the collection but to enhance them through clarification of some of their more oblique references, and background for those spiritual,technical, historic, or scientific.  

I hope you find this blog enjoyable, useful, and worth returning to often.

~ G.w.W