A Word Like Fire: Dick Barnes, Mojave desert poet

Dick Barnes - a great poet, great Mojave Desert poet - this poem is reprinted with permission from Dick Barnes' widow, Pat Barnes. Look for desert poems of Dick Barnes (who was an English professor, translator of the poetry of Argentine poet Borges- with Robert Metzer) to be published in the Sept 21 (fall equinox) issue of Phantom Seed. The following poem will also be published in an anthology of desert literature, forthcoming from Heyday Books, 2009. Thank you to Pat Barnes and the equally-amazing poet and professor emeritus, Pomona College, Robert Metzer. See also the link to the critical essay written by Metzer, about Barnes, and the genius of Barnes' poetry http://www.pomona.edu/Magazine/PCMfl05/DEbookshelf.shtml link to Robert Metzer's discussion/critique of Barnes' poetry. Baghdad Chase Road in July Within the immense circle of the horizon only the two of us on two legs that don’t have feathers on. Hello, horned lark. Hello, loggerhead shrike. Hello, dove-size bird with black fan-tail fluttering along the ground, a jackrabbit would jump as high. And for the vast absence of our own species, thanks, thanks, thanks. Not that you didn’t dig the mines and make this road we’re on; but it’s your absence today that earns my gratitude. Thanks too for the monument and bronze tablet to mark where Ragtown was, and the railroad going down to Ludlow, so I can rejoice they’ve already disappeared with hardly a trace. Thank you sky for speaking only after lightning. Hello, jackrabbit, hello groundsquirrel, good luck raven, I never saw you hover like that. Thank you, rain, for flavoring our jaunt with a hint of danger, and for the splashy mist when you lashed the desert hills to show what you can do when you mean business. Thank you, other twolegged bare featherless creature, for sharing the jagged horizon of my life. Thank you rainbow over the East Mojave low to the ground so early in the afternoon: thank you for being here with us. c. Dick Barnes, reprinted with permission from Pat Barnes. Thank you!