Name: Gathering Memories
Duration: P00H02M15S
Description: A poem about gathering wood and creating memories with my Dad.

Gathering Memories

from A Kootenay Flower in Foreign Soil by Erin J. Bauman the Panoptical Poet

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A poem about gathering wood and creating memories with my Dad.

lyrics

Winter
has not set in yet
but we are preparing anyway;
navigating a mountain road,
in a Jetta with a rickety wooden trailer
hooked to its rear bumper,
in the time honored quest for fire.
Gathering firewood has become our tradition,
born out of your desire to share with me
your love of the forest,
and my desire to avoid doing the dishes.

Even though we are flanked by cliff,
going up on one side
and down on the other side of the car,
the drive is not the most frightening part
of this journey.
We arrive at a suitable clearing,
and you scout for a still standing
dead tree –
never being one to waste
a life –
then the real rush comes.

You tell me to wait by the car,
which is parked
a healthy distance away
from your conquest.
I love the illusion of safety
this distance between myself
and the soon to fall tree creates,
but in the back of my mind
I wonder what an eight year old should do
miles up a logging road
if her father gets injured?

Even if I were to protest,
your mind is made up.
I can see by the set of your jaw,
and the deliberation with which you pull the cord
to start the chainsaw.
You head towards the deceased pine,
and I watch how you slice at each side:
slowly,
carefully,
in such a way as to predict
the landing area
the tree will choose.
Finally I see you pull away your blade,
and simultaneously I hear the crack
of timber about to swoon.

You begin to run
in the direction you’ve decided
will be opposite
to the path of the tree,
and I watch through parted fingers
to see if you’ve made the right decision.
Seconds later I exhale deeply, lowering my hand,
as the tree settles noisily,
on its side, into the dirt.
The tension that permeated the moment
settles into dust.

There is nothing left to do now,
except load up our treasure
and wind our way
back down the mountain.
On the way
I fall asleep to the sound of CBC News,
almost safe at last.

credits

from A Kootenay Flower in Foreign Soil, released November 27, 2021
Written and Read by: Erin J. Bauman, the Panoptical Poet

Recorded and Mastered by: Steve Marc/SMG Endeavors

Published in Print by: The Confluence, Garret Svensen, September 2013

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about

Erin J. Bauman the Panoptical Poet image

Erin J. Bauman the Panoptical Poet Castlegar, British Columbia

The Panoptical Poet is an environmental and social justice word warrior who ex-amines the many varying viewpoints of our current global reality.

Each poem Erin writes is an attempt at bringing to light the undervalued voices that are being silenced in the landscape of our collective conversations.

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