23 Comments
User's avatar
Martin Mc Carthy's avatar

This is a wonderful post, David. I enjoyed it all - the words, the scenery, the pictures! You brought everything alive for me - even the added raindrops, which we're having so many of here in Ireland at the moment. I mean rain, sleet, ice, snow - you name it!

Oh, I almost forgot, 'A Good Time, in the Bad Lands' is a great title for the piece, and would probably make a great country and western song!

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Oh Martin.... I am truly delighted that you like this. There is obvious risk in writing something then sending it out into the world the same day - in this case within minutes of writing the last line.

Poems feel like children, and you can't help but worry for them.

"Did I pack their lunch?"

"Will they be warm enough?"

"Do they know where they are going?"

In the end, like our children, you do what you can for them and then they have to fend for themselves. Reading your lovely comment is like receiving a phone call from the kids. "Yep! We're doing fine. It's all okay... Stop worrying!"

Also - I have read your thoughtful commentary on many other writers here, Martin, and also your own wonderful poetry. (Forever and other poems is a favourite of mine. I'm adding the link for other readers: https://substack.com/@martinmccarthy/p-144556167 )

So yes - I deeply value your opinion. If we get back to Cork (and it could happen late this year) I look forward to raising a glass with you!

Best Wishes - Dave :)

Expand full comment
Martin Mc Carthy's avatar

Thank you, Dave, for putting the link to my Substack out there. I really appreciate that because I just like the idea of other people reading my work and finding something in it that they can identify with. As for meeting up for a Guinness, when you visit Cork later this year, I would like that very much. Just let me know through one of these comment boxes and I will give you my mobile number.

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

This is chaos- but still patterned...love that!

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Hi Rajani

Thankyou! Yes, like the land there itself, really. A chaotic landscape, but with patterns...

Maybe like life, too?

Best Wishes - Dave

Expand full comment
Kiki's avatar

I love seeing Meg’s sketches!! She should start her own Substack and share these. There were flowers in one of your posts that were just gorgeous. 🎨💜

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Hey Kiki! Oh - this will make her so happy! I agree - she should start her own Substack. When we travel together, we have a joint travel diary, where I write and Meg creates art. The nature of that work is spontaneous and fast - because we may just be stopped somewhere for a few minutes. I am trying to encourage her to do more. Your lovely comment will help!

Best Wishes - Dave :)

Expand full comment
Kiki's avatar

Tell her I’ll be her second subscriber!! (After you, of course.) 🫶🏻

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

I showed M your comment, Kiki. She is delighted!

Also - because of your beautiful, encouraging comment - I spent my afternoon writing a post around her lovely painting of Levanto, in Italy, created when we were there, about 16 months ago.....

Best Wishes - Dave

Expand full comment
Kiki's avatar

So, so gorgeous!!

Expand full comment
Rostislava Pankova-Karadjova's avatar

Your poem and the photographs made me yearn for rain. Loved Meg’s art too 😊

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Thankyou, dear Ronnie! M was a little doubtful, because as she said "that wasn't one of my better sketches!" However, for me it was all about remembering being there together, and watching her create an image, and having a photograph of that happening.... :)

Expand full comment
Krspeace's avatar

Mind sunlighted...another great poem as usual David

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Thankyou! About half as successful - in terms of reads - as my last post, but I enjoyed creating it.

Writing poetry is very like following a rocky river downstream, or upstream - leaping from boulder to boulder. (Something I actually do quite a lot, in my wilderness activities). Each stone is unique; some are tiny, and you skip from one to another rapidly; others are the size of a house, to be carefully climbed over with great effort. Every move requires great care - whether the rock be small or large - and each stone is reached only because of those that preceded it, and in turn leads to another, and then another, with every leap requiring a choice between alternatives....

The beauty is in the discovery of each, the joy of movement, and the choices made along the way.

For the past 22 years or so, I have been writing just for myself and sometimes my wife. A bit like a solo journey down a river.

Publishing again after that long break, and having readers again, is more like travelling with a bunch of friends - to share and enjoy the journey with, and to learn from as well.

There is probably something in this rather like the "spirit of Shokunin" you recently wrote very thoughtfully about. https://substack.com/@fauxfiruta/p-154518306

Interestingly, there is a Japanese spiritual practice, with roots in Shinto I believe, called "Sawanobori" - which is following a rocky mountain river upstream through its gorges, canyons and waterfalls, to the source....

Best Wishes - Dave :)

Expand full comment
Krspeace's avatar

I will most definitely have to look into Sawanobori!

Expand full comment
Jed Moffitt's avatar

Meg, like the sky...

Expand full comment
Jed Moffitt's avatar

In the almost never saw rain we never saw fall... Say that 10 times fast. Wait. On second thought. Don't do anything fast.

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

:)

Expand full comment
Nikos Anagnostou's avatar

Where is this place, Dave?

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Hi friend Nikos!

It’s called “Hell’s Half Acre.” (Those wacky Americans have a way with names). It’s in Wyoming. (Yes - we were roamin’ in Wyoming 🙈)

If it looks familiar …. I discovered (after visiting) that the scenes on the “Bug Planet” Klendathu in the film “Starship Troopers” were filmed there.

Of course - if you say “oh yes!” you are admitting to having watched Starship Troopers!

(But personally, I think it’s a hilarious satire of a fascist society. Maybe less hilarious when I think of the Trumpland reality my good friends in the USA now face….)

Best Wishes - Dave

Expand full comment
Nikos Anagnostou's avatar

A late reply (my work keeps me very busy again): I know Starship Troopers but I haven’t seen or read it. The landscape looked American so I wondered. And there you are, traveling the States. Enjoy, my friend!

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Ah! Nikos :)

It’s a ridiculous B grade sci fi film - if you take it at face value, but for me I’m sure it’s intended as a satire of US style militarism and fascism generally.

Anyway…

We are not in the USA now. I wrote the words 3 days ago, but the photos and events were from a trip a few years ago,…. A long road trip from LA to Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and beyond…

Best Wishes - Dave:)

Expand full comment
Nikos Anagnostou's avatar

It’s based on Heinlein’s book which I haven’t read but, knowing his work a little bit, I would agree with your interpretation.

I have read “The moon is a harsh mistress” which is discussing societal issues much more explicitly.

Expand full comment