The Middlewesterner

Friday, August 31, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 92

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 92

The land flat
but tilted.

The poet
tilted, too,

the way
you want.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 10:11 AM

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 100

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 100

This road climbs.
Snow on that

mountain, a white,
bright shimmering.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:06 AM

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Highway 82, Mile Marker 102

from

NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO

January, 2016

Highway 82, Mile Marker 102

The world

doesn't know

we love it,

or why. Love

doesn't need

a reason.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:17 AM

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Highways 70/380, Mile Marker 290

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highways 70/380, Mile Marker 290

Here we are.
Four lanes to nowhere.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:54 AM

Monday, August 27, 2018

Highway 380, Mile Marker 90

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 380, Mile Marker 90

Sun is
everything

in these
mountains

and is
nothing.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 10:39 AM

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Highway 380, Mile Marker 62 Valley of Fire

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 380, Mile Marker 62
Valley of Fire

Like Iceland
the land

out to the edge
of short grass.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:45 AM

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Highway 380, Mile Marker 55

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 380, Mile Marker 55

Who speaks here
for the spirits?

Who speaks
for coyote and

raven and hawk?

# posted by Tom Montag @ 11:27 AM

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 303

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 303

Sky's friend, this
openness.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 7:48 AM

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

AUGUST ALREADY

August already
acting like September.
The light,

I mean. And darkness
coming sooner.
The sharp

talk of the leaves
in hundred-year-old trees.
The stars

marking out their wisdom
as evening comes in.
The hum

of this universe,
an E-flat note we
can't hear.

How easily
we could lose ourselves
again.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:16 AM

Monday, August 20, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 296

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 296

No one wants what everyone has.
Cattle eat the short grass and

this emptiness holds itself.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 2:47 PM

Friday, August 17, 2018

Highway 70, Crossing Eagle Creek

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Crossing Eagle Creek

The devil takes
what the devil

wants. Behind us
that which we

leave, shadows,
mountains.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:07 AM

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 268

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 268

Raven

throws himself
off the mountain.

Down is his
only way out.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:13 AM

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

ALL THE GREAT

All the great
things are small

flowers on
tender stalks.

The wind which
is no wind

shall move them.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:35 AM

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 254

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 254

Oh, yes,
lift up
your eyes!

Again,
I say,
lift them!

# posted by Tom Montag @ 2:23 PM

Monday, August 13, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (69)

GYPSY POET TOUR (69)

Missouri Highway

Death here
wears

an armadillo's
armour,

bird feathers,
a turtle's

shell. No one
slows for sorrow.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:12 AM

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 247

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 247

Trees in these
mountains accept
the conditions.

You take your chances.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:18 AM

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 251

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 251

White horse
against
red shed --

how much
depends
on this?

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:54 AM

Friday, August 10, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 240

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 240

Dead leaf

a monarch
butterfly

against
the guardrail.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:39 AM

Thursday, August 09, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (60)

Shadows
like hands

scooping
up sun.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:20 AM

Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Highway 70, Mile Marker 236

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 236

The snow-capped
peak playing
hide and seek.

One game or
another.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:35 AM

Tuesday, August 07, 2018

MOCKINGHEART INTERVIEW

My interview with Clare Martin at Mockingheart Review about my month-long reading/writing tour of the western United States has just been posted:

https://mockingheartreview.com/2018/08/07/interview-with-a-poet-tom-montag/

# posted by Tom Montag @ 7:32 PM

Highway 70, Mile Marker 230

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Mile Marker 230

The weight of day,
these mountains.

The light shows us
its exhaustion.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 9:04 AM

Monday, August 06, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (55)

Small vulture
at dead squirrel

on the road.
Mine, he says.

All mine!

# posted by Tom Montag @ 7:54 AM

Sunday, August 05, 2018

White Sands National Monument

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

White Sands National Monument

Of all your wonders,
Lord, this is the whitest.

Sand like salt, like soap,
like sugar in a dish.

What bears your
brightness shines here.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:10 AM

Saturday, August 04, 2018

GYPSY POET TOUR (53)

The trees.
How they

hope. What
they know.

# posted by Tom Montag @ 8:03 AM

Friday, August 03, 2018

Highway 70, Alamogordo

from
NOTEBOOK: NEW MEXICO
January, 2016

Highway 70, Alamogordo

You don't tell
the mountain's story.

The mountain tells it.