64 Questions : Poetry by David Holper

by Holper, David; Bixby, Robert J.

• ISBN13: 9781596611023
• ISBN10: 1596611022
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-12-12
• Publisher: March Street Pr

Summary

Tamalpais Long ago and long ago I climbed the sleeping princess I climbed her in light and darkness I toiled on her mighty flanks pushing myself over Manzanita and sandstone struggling up her eastern flank dripping with sweat until I arrived at the margin, shivering where day and night coalesced at her peak There the view was so profound I found that turning westward I could see far beyond the lap of waves out into the endless distance of ocean where the sun buried itself amidst the waves (and in the purple glow the effacing fog came creeping) Then I turned east all the way to Mt. Diablo where the light fled fastest (dark as a bruise) before being swallowed by the gathering gloom Then, doing my best to find a flat spot on which to lay, I fell into a troubled sleep a sleep in which dreams nosed about the floor of my mind dreams in which death came knocking but I did not yet know her (being so young, so naïve) dreams in which I came face to face with the smallness of my life and how she could wipe it from the face of the earth with a mere breath I twisted and turned in my sleep trying desperately to break free of her fierce hold but the night stretched long and dark and unbroken and she did not release me Nor did she turn or speak no matter how I stormed No, not until I turned toward her terror filling every fiber of my being and embraced her cold ashy figure did she trouble me no more.In the morning the fog blanketed the world in a wet chill so that all that remained was this island top, the towers of the bridge and one or two mausoleums in the distant city I feasted on champagne and oranges and stared: it was a good and peaceful sight watching the sun lift its mighty face over the peak of Mt. Diablo setting all the world ablaze with light and I stood in wonder to think of how one could be reborn beyond all this: beyond the beck and call of humanity beyond even death itself and my heart sang of things that not even it understood: then, drunk on the morning's fiery glory I took one last glance at the singing brightness swallowed it into myself to carry home before I shouldered my pack and began the descent back into the gray shadows below.

Author Biography

David Holper has published in Grand Street, The New Virginia Review, Stories, Callaloo, Quarterly West, South Carolina Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Rambler, The Kerf, and Toyon. He lives in Eureka, California, far from the madness of civilization.